Since co-founding Giant Films in 1995, Ian Gabriel has been directing award-winning commercial campaigns, and critically acclaimed feature films.

Ian’s extensive experience in film and theatre began at Dorkay House, Johannesburg’s famous anti-apartheid theatre venue. His feature film, Four Corners, was the South African Official Submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, and went on to win 6 Golden Horn South African Film and Television Awards including Best Picture. His debut film Forgiveness won the Best South African Film Award in 2004, was a Golden Leopard nominee at The Locarno International Film. Festival,  and went on to win the Locarno Youth Jury Best Film Award.

Ian recently collaborated with his son,  writer/actor/director Gabe Gabriel, on the Netflix family dramedy Runs in the Family, which  reflects on Ian’s Indian diasporic past and his son’s transgender future. The film received the 2023 Best South African Film Award at the Durban International Film Festival and  was a 2024 GLAAD Awards Outstanding Film nominee ( TV and Streaming )  Ian’s latest outing, Death of a Whistleblower is a true events thriller about whistleblowing and the funding for profit of warfare in Africa and the Middle East. The film won the Best African Film award at the 2024 Johannesburg International Film Festival.

Ian’s upcoming projects for 2025/2026 are the Aids and Apartheid disco resistance film Granny Lee based on the eponymous  transgender, white-passing Trans icon from 80s  Hillbrow, Ian’s teen and twenties stomping ground, to be directed by ‘The Gabriel’s’ a writer / director collaborative comprising  Ian and Gabe Gabriel,  and Pelindaba Affirmation Day , an international political assassination thriller based on true story events in South Africa and USA  of the mid 60s.