about

Giancarlo Abrahan is a Filipino director, writer, producer, translator, performer & educator.

He recently directed Mr. Serapio’s Trial by Paul Dumol and Barbies, Bodies, Bondage by Zandra Paxton at HERE Arts Center in New York; Mad Child’s Far Away by Caryl Churchill in the Philippines.

Dagitab (Sparks), his debut feature, was awarded Best Director & Best Screenplay at Cinemalaya, hailed Best First Feature by the Young Critics Circle, and listed Best Film & Best Screenplay by Pinoy Rebyu in its annual poll of Filipino film reviewers in 2014. Paki (Please Care), his second film, won Best Film, Best Director & Best Screenplay at Cinema One Originals 2017. He directed & produced Sila-sila (The Same People), which won Best Film,
Best Screenplay & Audience Award at Cinema One Originals 2019.

They co-wrote the debut features of several Filipino filmmakers: Transit by Hannah Espia-Farbová; I’m Drunk, I Love You directed by JP Habac; and Kun Maupay Man It Panahon (Whether the Weather is Fine) directed by Carlo Manatad.

They also produced the films Fisting: Never Tear Us Apart by Whammy Alcazaren, With All My Hypothalamus written & directed by Dwein Ruedas Baltazar, and Hilom (Still) and Abogbaybay (Shoredust) by P.R. Monecillo Patindol.

He served as one of the editors of SA PRAGA (In Prague), a book of Filipino translations of works by the Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert, Nobel Laureate for Literature.

He is a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Film Institute where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film. He has an MFA in Contemporary Theatre & Performance at The New School, where he received the Ted Snowdon Playwriting Fellowship.

He performed with Jessica Zafra in Exporting Positive Disposition since 1417: a Theory for World Domination, directed by Raya Martin, at the Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting 2018.

Abrahan is an alumnus of the ASEAN Film Leaders Incubator, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, the Asian Film Academy, Berlinale Talents, Oberhausen Film Seminar, Talents Tokyo, Full Circle Lab & the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop.

They served as moderator of Dulaang Sibol, a theatre group of Ateneo de Manila High School, and as workshop director of Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA), the premier organization of poets in the Filipino language. They are also a member of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy (APSA) and the Filipino Screenwriters Guild (FSG).