Gabriela Garcia Medina
ARTIST BIO
Gabriela Garcia Medina is a Cuban-American-British filmmaker. Her short film LITTLE CON LILI won Best in Fest at the HBO Women in Comedy Festival (2019), Best Short Contest with NBC (2019), and the LALIFF/FOTOKEM post-production award. Nominated for Best Short Comedy at the Palm Springs ShortFest 2020, won the 2020 TELLING OUR STORIES Film competition (Starz, Women in Film), and has received distribution by HBO (2021).
Gabriela’s short film THE 90 DAY PLAN (a short film/Proof of Concept shot in 8 hours), won Best of Fest at the HBO Women in Comedy Festival 2020, Best Short Contest Award (Powderkeg/Feigco Ent), official selection at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival 2020, and official selection for the PBS LatinXperience 2021.
Gabriela's feature film MEDIO SUMMER, a Spanglish, Spoken-word adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is in development (co-production with Marc Platt Productions, and MACRO), and her feature LITTLE CON LILI is in development with Mandalay Pictures. Gabriela is a 2020 Film Independent Directing Lab Fellow, a 2016 Hedgebrook Screenwriting Lab Fellow, and she has been selected for the 2021 SONY Incubator lab. Writer/Director for the Gamechanger One Love short film project (prod. Effie Brown), 2021.
Gabriela received her BFA in 2005, from UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television (with a double minor in Chicano/a Studies and African American Studies), and a dual MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 2015. Aside from being a filmmaker, Gabriela is also an international Spoken Word poet, performing her one-woman show at over 1000 universities in the US, and opening for artists including Pitbull, the Black-Eyed Peas, Taj Mahal, Harry Belafonte, and social/political figures including Maxine Waters, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Kamala Harris, among others. Gabriela's spoken word has appeared on KCET Television, KPFK, NPR, and on commercials for Dove, Toyota, and Coca Cola. Gabriela is represented by Jairo Alvarado at Redefine Entertainment, and Valarie Phillips at A3 Artist Agency.
SHORT FILMS
LITTLE CON LILI
THE 90 DAY PLAN
FEATURE FILMS
TELEVISION
AWARDS & LABS
2019
Best of Fest
HBO Women in Comedy Festival/
Best Short Contest NBC (winner)
Post Production Award
LALIFF/Fotokem (winner)
Best Short Comedy
Palm Springs ShortFest (Nominee)
2020
Starz Telling Our Stories (winner)
2020
Best of Fest
HBO Women in Comedy Festival/
Best Short Contest FEIGCO Entertainment (winner)
2016
Screenwriting Fellow
Hedgebrook Screenwriting Lab
2020
Directing Lab Fellow
Film Independent Directing Lab
2021
SONY Incubator lab.
PRESS

Gabriela Garcia Medina’s Short Film ‘Little Con Lili’ Is Like a Cuban-American ‘Matilda’
08.09.19