Isabel Santos is an animation artist, director and educator from Queens, New York. Through character based, hand-drawn animation, Isabel translates her experience of her own embodiment and self-perception into unusual and dramatic bodily movements whose tension affects the surrounding environment, bringing objects to life. Her films focus on the perspective of an individual in relationships with others, experiencing a surreal internal life seeping into their mundane reality.

Isabel’s films have screened internationally, with her latest film SWIM! winning the Special Jury Mention for Student Film at New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival in Japan and a Special Mention from BITBANG in Argentina.

Isabel is a 2024 MFA candidate in experimental animation at the California Institute for the Arts and holds a BFA in Film/Animation/Video from the Rhode Island School of Design.


Contact me! isabelsantos@alum.calarts.edu