Isabel Sandoval is a US-based filmmaker who has written and directed three features: Señorita (2011), Apparition (2012), and Lingua Franca (2019). Lingua Franca, in which Sandoval co-starred opposite Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks: The Return), premiered at the Venice Film Festival, making Sandoval the first trans woman director to compete at the festival. The film was highly acclaimed, garnering rave reviews, playing at film festivals worldwide, and being distributed in the U.S. by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY. The film is currently nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Sandoval is currently developing her fourth and most ambitious feature, Tropical Gothic, a 16th-century surrealist drama about the haunting of a Spanish conquistador in the Philippine islands.
