Gabriela Serrano (b. 1996) is a writer-director, editor, and artist from the Philippines. She is a SGIFF Southeast Asian Film Lab Fellow, a BIFAN Asian Discovery awardee, and a Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop alumna.
Raised in chaotic, superstitious Manila and dizzyingly expansive Texan desert land, Gabriela has cultivated a cinematic voice molded by relocation, identity crises, and the unseen. As a filmmaker, she is interested in warping genre and form to examine the ties between myth, neocolonialism, and longing in the modern Filipina body.
Gabriela worked extensively as a print illustrator for top Philippine publications and brands from the age of 15, and earned a Bachelor's degree in design and media at 21. Buoyed by a strong visual art background and a lifelong love for storytelling, she made the pivot to film and TV, starting out as an apprentice for directors John Torres, Dwein Baltazar, and Paco Raterta, then editing for various narrative and documentary projects, including the Independent Spirit-nominated FX/Hulu series THE CHOE SHOW.
Her directorial debut DIKIT, a split-screen depiction of Filipino mythology, feminine anger, and dreams, premiered to acclaim in 2021 and is streaming on the Criterion Channel. She continues her exploration of dreams in women’s spaces through the call center sci-fi drama PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, her first full length film in development, produced by Archipelago. It incubated at the Produire au Sud Workshop, the Full Circle Lab, and the Pustnik Screenwriters Residency. It has also been presented at the BIFAN Project Market, Sitges FanPitch Competition, the European Film Market, and FNC de Montréal’s Nouveau Marché, where it won a $25,000 development grant.
As of this year, she is completing two new shorts, both exploring Third World womanhood through the speculative and the surreal: ELENITA ELENA ELAINE, a non-linear pop sci-fi supported by the Momo Film Co Distribution Grant; and SURFACE TENSION, a retelling of the siren legend set in the contemporary tropics, recipient of the 2025 QCinema QCShorts Grant.
Serrano regularly collaborates with her sister, filmmaker/actor Mariana Serrano, with whom she co-writes and co-produces original scripts under their independent production outfit, STUDIO DALAGA.
