| A CONVERSATION WITH ISABEL SANDOVAL, Wednesday, April 14th, at 4:00 PM EST, as part of our April Showcase. Join us as we pay tribute to filmmaker Isabel Sandoval (“Lingua Franca”) with a special 30-minute virtual discussion. Cinema Femme founder Rebecca Martin will speak with the groundbreaking trans filmmaker about her career, and her passion for cinema. We thank our media partner, Letterboxd for helping get the word out! *We appreciate donations. Your support means the world to us as we are a small organization dedicated to elevating underrepresented voices in film and supporting the career sustainability of female-identifying filmmakers! Register |
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| ABOUT ISABEL SANDOVALDirector, actress, writer, producer, and editor Isabel Sandoval is the Filipina filmmaker who made history at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori section with the first film directed by and starring a trans woman of color ever to screen in competition. The film, Lingua Franca, is Ms. Sandoval’s first feature filmed in the U.S. and her third feature as director. After Venice, Lingua Franca traveled a global film festival journey into 2020 by way of the AFI Fest, BFI London Film Festival, American Film Festival Wroclaw, International Film Festival of India Goa, Festival International du Film de Mons, Palm Springs Film Festival, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Hamburg International Film Festival, Vinokino Film Festival, Everybody’s Perfect LGBT Film Festival, Gender Bender Film Festival, Slovak Queer Film Festival, Thessaloniki Film Festival, and Bentonville Film Festival — where it won Best Narrative Feature. Theatrical distribution, via Ava DuVernay’s Array Now initiative, followed and Lingua Franca is now available on Netflix. Ms. Sandoval made her directorial debut with the noir-inflected Señorita, which world-premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival and earned her the Emerging Director Award at the Asian American International Film Festival. Her second feature as director was the Ferdinand Marcos-era nun drama Apparition, which won the Lotus Audience Award at the Deauville Asian Film Festival following its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival. MoMA’s Department of Film featured Apparition in its survey of new-wave Philippine filmmaking as part of the “A New Golden Age: Contemporary Philippine Cinema” series. Ms. Sandoval’s films have also been generously supported by Frameline, Jerome Foundation, Independent Filmmaker Project, Tribeca Film Institute, New York Film Academy, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Westridge Grant. The latter funds U.S.-based independent narrative feature films at the screenwriting phase. Isabel Sandoval is a graduate from the University of San Carlos in Cebu, Philippines and earned her MBA as a graduate of NYU Stern School of Business, and currently lives in New York. |
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| ABOUT THE MODERATOR Rebecca Martin is the Managing Editor of Cinema Femme magazine and the Festival Director of Cinema Femme Short Film Fest. She founded her publication in 2018 because she wanted to create a platform for female voices in the film community. She has hosted film screenings in Chicago, led virtual panel discussions, Q&As, is the Cinema Femme Short Films Director, and has covered festivals like the Chicago International Film Festival, Sundance, Tribeca, and the Bentonville Film Festival. |
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