Gabriel Foster Prior is a director and editor whose work has earned critical acclaim and international festival recognition.

His debut feature, The Bystanders, premiered at the Austin Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Comedy Vanguard Award. The film went on to win the Audience Award at both the London Sci-Fi Film Festival and the Sydney Sci-Fi Film Festival. Gabriel was also nominated as Best New Filmmaker at Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival.

The film also secured a small UK cinema release, unusual for a low budget production of its scale, and received strong reviews during its run. It went on to be purchased by distributors in multiple countries around the world, including acquisition by Disney+ for UK and European streaming.

Total Film awarded it four stars, calling it “an inventive Brit-com with style, charm, and wit.” The Guardian described it as having “a strong strand of UK comedy in the DNA, recalling material like Red Dwarf and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

A graduate of the University of Edinburgh with a BA in Film & TV, Gabriel began his career editing short films that earned festival accolades, including a nomination for a BAFTA New Talent Award.

He has since edited over twenty feature films, including Lucid, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, The Wall of Mexico, which opened South by Southwest, and three films from the popular Rise of the Footsoldier crime franchise.

As a director, Gabriel has also helmed several short films, including A Short Film About Hats (Fest New Directors Festival), Binoculars (Cinecity Brighton Film Festival), and The Drunk, which won Best Director at the Ealing Film Festival and was described by BBC film critic James King as “five minutes of funny.”