Isabel Sandoval

Feature Films

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]

Short Films and TV Shows

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]}

Short film

Executive Producer

• Anino (2025)

Feature film

Television