US-based, Philippine-born Isabel Sandoval “has emerged as one of the most exciting and multi-talented filmmakers on the indie scene with a bold approach to cinematic style,” according to The Criterion Collection. Meanwhile, the Museum of Modern Art has recognized her as a “rarity among the young generation of Filipino filmmakers.” Her last two films both premiered at the Venice International Film Festival: the Independent Spirit Award-nominated Lingua Franca and the short film Shangri-La, an entry in the MIU MIU Women’s Tales series, which previously commissioned renowned auteurs like Agnes Varda, Lynne Ramsay and Mati Diop.
Isabel directed a critically acclaimed episode of FX Networks’ Under The Banner of Heaven starring Andrew Garfield, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sam Worthington.
In 2021, Isabel was the jury president of the Sutherland Award at the BFI London Film Festival where Lingua Franca was in the main competition in 2019. She is presently attached to direct and executive produce a limited series adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth produced by Playground Entertainment and Kaling International. She also has a TV series in development with Topic Studios.
Her fourth–and most ambitious–feature, Tropical Gothic, received a development prize at the 2021 Berlinale.
Isabel was invited to join the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) “having demonstrated exceptional accomplishments in the field of theatrical motion pictures”.
