Isabel Sandoval

Isabel Sandoval is an independent Filipino filmmaker and actress who is currently based in the United States. She directed the films Señorita (2011), Aparisyon (2012) and Lingua Franca (2019). She also directed a short film called Shangri-La (2021) as part of the Miu Miu's Women's Tales series of female-directed short films commissioned by the fashion brand.

Isabel Sandoval was born in 1982 in Cebu City in the Philippines.^[1] She is an only child raised by a single mother. Her love for film began at the age of four, when her mother took her to a pre-war movie palace to watch a Filipino slapstick comedy.^[2]

She studied Psychology at the in graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Carlos,^[3] where she graduated summa cum laude. She then moved to New York City to pursue her MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.^[4][5][6] Not long after she finished her MBA, she got together with her cinematographer roommate to shoot the short version of Señorita, her debut feature.^[7]

Isabel Sandoval has produced, written, and directed three feature-length films. In 2011, Sandoval directed her first feature, Señorita, a film about a trans woman working on a political campaign and raising a young boy. She played the film's protagonist, though she was not out as trans at the time, and has said that the role helped her realize her identity.^[8][9][10] This film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and was nominated for Best Picture by the Young Critics Circle of the Philippines.^[11]

In 2012, she directed the film Aparisyon (Apparition), starring actresses Jodi Sta. Maria and Mylene Dizon, about a convent of nuns in a remote area of the Philippines in 1971, just before the declaration of martial law by Ferdinand Marcos.^[12][13][14] In 2017, Apparition was screened at MoMA as a part of the “A New Golden Age: Contemporary Philippine Cinema” series alongside works of other Filipino filmmakers, Lav Diaz and Brillante Mendoza.^[11] She mentioned that after finishing this film, she “was certain and discreetly started my transition shortly after.”^[2]

Her third feature film is Lingua Franca, released in 2019 and was shot in 16 days in Brooklyn, New York, starring herself, Eamon Farren and Lynn Cohen.^[15] In the film, Sandoval plays an undocumented Filipino trans woman who falls in love with the adult grandson of the elderly woman for whom she is working as a caregiver.^[15] Lingua Franca is her first feature film to be set and produced in the United States and is her first film after her gender transition.^[16] She began her gender transition when Trump was first elected to the white house, and she stated that Lingua Franca came to her during that period. Although it’s not an autobiographical film, it captures the emotional state she was in at the time.^[16] Sandoval became the first out trans woman of color to compete at the Venice Film Festival when Lingua Franca premiered there.^[13][15][17] The film won the award for best narrative feature at the Bentonville Film Festival, and was released by ARRAY and streamed on Netflix.^[15][17] Sandoval was named Best Actress at the 18th International Cinephile Society Awards,^[18] and at the Pacific Meridian International Film Festival.^[8]

In 2021, Sandoval wrote and directed Shangri-La (filmed in two months), a short film commissioned by the Miu Miu Women's Tales project which asks female directors to examine "femininity in the 21st century", releasing it in February 2021.^[13][15][19] Like Lingua Franca, Shangri-La deals with forbidden love and racial prejudice.^[13][19] The same year, she signed with Creative Artists Agency.^[15]

In addition to her feature-length and short films, she has also worked on numerous TV show episodes. In 2022, she directed her first TV episode for the FX drama series Under the Banner of Heaven, which stars Andrew Garfield. In a TV interview, Andrew Garfield recalls his unforgettable experience working with Sandoval, “I love her (Isabel). She’s incredible. She’s so precise, so sensitive, so professional, so talented and astute. She’s great.”^[6] In the same year, she directed two episodes of the Hulu series Tell Me Lies, created by Meaghan Oppenheimer.

In 2023, she directed two episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty, a coming-of-age romantic television series created by the author Jenny Han.

Sandoval recently wrapped her upcoming film, Moonglow, set in late-1970s Manila with Arjo Atayde attached into the project.^[20][21]

Sandoval is also developing a drama for FX, Vespertine,^[15] and a film, Tropical Gothic, about the haunting of a Spanish conquistador in the 16th-century Philippines and based on the 1972 short story collection of the same name by Nick Joaquin.^[9][10][22] In March 2021, Tropical Gothic won the VFF talent highlight award at the Berlinale, worth 10,000 euros towards its production and according to her recorded interview with GMA News, has plans to be screened at either Cannes, Venice or Berlin.^{[23][24][25][26]}

Sandoval was inspired by films that depict impossible love relationships. She has stated that she enjoyed watching Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai's film, In the Mood for Love (2000), for its style and profound melancholy. Its concept of emotional destination was a profound theme that influenced her. She sought to express illicit emotions that were distinctive, singular, and complex as she had not seen in films before. Sandoval consistently explores the themes of marginalization and the intersectionality between complex identities and socio-political issues. As she progresses as a filmmaker, she realizes that she is more inclined to use this medium to shed light on the female experience.^[27] In her interview with Vogue Philippines, she stated, "I'm drawn to women protagonists that are disempowered in some way [...] who in the bigger picture, might seem powerless but in their realm, with their relationships, they try to assert themselves somehow as a way to hold on to their dignity."^[28]

In 2020, Ava DuVernay's ARRAY, acquired Lingua Franca and led to its streaming on Netflix and screening in selected theaters.^[29] in developing the styles of work. Other films which she has cited as influencing her were: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) by the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, News from Home (1977) by Chantal Akerman, and Klute (1971) by Alan J. Pakula.^[30][31]

Best Achievement in Film Editing (shared with Jarrold Tarog)

• List of transgender film and television directors

• Tauer, Kristen. "Eye: Isabel Sandoval on Directing 'Shangri-La' For Miu Miu Women's Tale'." WWD, (2021):29-. Print
• Macnab, G. (2019). ‘Lingua franca’ director isabel sandoval lines up next project ‘Park lane’ (exclusive). Screen International, ProQuest 2301102622
• How Trump's Presidency Helped Shape Isabel Sandoval's “Lingua Franca” Movie.(Broadcast Transcript). Washington, D.C: National Public Radio, Inc. (NPR), 2020. Print.
• Dalton, B. (2019). Luxbox boards isabel Sandoval's venice days premiere ‘Lingua franca’ (exclusive). Screen International, ProQuest 2268074900
• Morgenstern, J. (August 27, 2020). 'Lingua franca' review: Looking for love; A filipina caregiver hopes to find a husband, and thereby a green card, in isabel sandoval's touching feature. Wall Street Journal ProQuest 2437556233
• Sandoval, Isabel. (20xx). "Meet Isabel Sandoval", Passerbuys: real recommendations, real people. http://www.passerbuys.com/profiles/isabel-sandoval, Biography.
• Inton-Campbell, Mikee. “Precarity and motherhood in Philippine Trans Cinema.” Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance, vol. 1, no. 3, 31 Jan. 2022, pp. 44–52, https://doi.org/10.59588/2782-8875.1023.
• Published by James Kleinmann, Founder and Editor of The Queer Review, et al. “Exclusive Interview: ‘I Wanted to Break as Many Rules as Possible’ Isabel Sandoval on Her Early Films Señorita & Apparition Now Playing on Criterion Channel.” The Queer Review, 15 June 2021, thequeerreview.com/2021/05/10/exclusive-interview-isabel-sandoval-on-senorita-apparition-on-criterion-channel/.
• Waltpaper. “24 Fps: Isabel Sandoval, Incandescent Auteur.” IMPULSE Magazine, IMPULSE Magazine, 15 Apr. 2025, impulsemagazine.com/symposium/isabel-sandoval-interview
• Sandoval, Isabel. "Seeing as the Other." Journal #117, www.e-flux.com/journal/117/385174/seeing-as-the-other.

• Isabel Sandoval at IMDb
• Isabel Sandoval at Black Dog Films
• Isabel Sandoval at Passerby
• Isabel Sandoval at Letterboxd