Trans Filipino wins international Best Actress award
Sandoval won for her role as Filipino trans woman and undocumented immigrant worker in Lingua Franca, a film which she also wrote, produced, edited and directed
Filmmaker Isabel Sandoval becomes the first transgender woman to win Best Actress at the 18th Pacific Meridian International Film Festival of Asian Pacific Countries held in Vladivostok, Russia. Sandoval won for her role as Filipino trans woman and undocumented immigrant worker in Lingua Franca, a film which she also wrote, produced, edited and directed. She sent a video message accepting the award during the awarding ceremony held on 16 October.
Two Filipinos have previously won the Best Actress award — Gina Pareño in 2008 for Serbis and LJ Reyes in 2015 for Anino sa Likod ng Buwan.
Sandoval is based in New York, United States, who has made two feature films when she was in the Philippines — Señorita in 2011 and
Aparisyon (Apparition) in 2012. Her first feature film, Señorita, competed at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland and was nominated for Best Picture by the Young Critics Circle of the Philippines. She won the Emerging Director Award at the 2012 Asian- American International Film Festival for the political thriller. Her second feature film is a period drama about cloistered Filipino nuns during the Marcos dictatorship, which won several international awards. Sandoval participated in a panel of South by Southwest Festival, “The Future is Female: Parity Now,” together with filmmakers Bette Gordon and Nanfu Wang in March 2017.
Lingua Franca, Sandoval’s third, is her first English-language film and also her first af ter her transition. Supported by filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY collective, the film tells the story of an undocumented trans woman working as a caregiver in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, who has to resort to marriage to be legal and falls in love with the grandson of the woman she is caring for. Lingua Franca has received accolades and is being shown on Netflix, except in the Philippines. It is set to premiere in the country on 6 November at Cinema ’76 Film Society.
The Pacific Meridian, held since since 2003 in Vladivostok, Russia, has been highlighting films from Russia and the Asia-Pacific region. No Filipino film yet has won in its competitions of full-length and short films but two Filipinos have previously won the Best Actress award — Gina Pareño in 2008 for Serbis and LJ Reyes in 2015 for Anino sa Likod ng Buwan.
Sandoval’s win is notable as the Russian government has been hostile to the LGBTQ+ community and persecutions of LGBTQ+ persons have been rampant.