Júlíus Kemp

Júlíus Kemp (born 2 December 1967) is an Icelandic film director and producer.

Júlíus Kemp studied film-making at the West Surrey College of Art & Design in the UK. His short film "Happy Birthday" (16mm/bw) was made at WSCAD/London in 1991. Julius left college to work as an editor on "Children of Nature" (1991) by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, which was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film. He co-founded the Icelandic Film Company in 1991 and co-wrote and directed his first feature film, "Veggfóður erótísk ástarsaga" (1992), which was a box office hit, produced by Fridriksson and Kemp.

From 1993 to 2000, he served as the director of The Reykjavík Intl. Short Film Festival and was a film critic in 1993 and 1994. He was also a member of the selection committee for the Reykjavík Film Festival and served as a board member of the Association of Icelandic Film Producers, SÍK, from 1993 to 2000. Kemp has been a member of the European Film Academy since 2001.

For his short film "Bardinn," Kemp was awarded the second prize at The Nordic Short Film Festival in 1982 and the first prize the same year at The Reykjavík Short Film Festival. He also won the second prize at the Akureyri Short Film Festival in 1987 for "Ak-Rek-Ak."

Kemp is an award-winning director of music videos. In November 1997, his film "Blossi/810551" (1997) was selected as the Icelandic entry for the 1998 Academy Awards. In 1998, he made the short film "The Happy End," which was selected in competition at the Toronto Int. Short Film Festival. In 2000, he produced and shot the box office hit "The Icelandic Dream" (2000), nominated for 4 Edda Awards (Icelandic Oscars), including Best Picture. It was also selected in competition for Best Nordic Film at the Gothenburg Film Festival 2001 and was in the official selection at Edinburgh 2001, Toronto 2001, Pusan 2001, and other festivals. In 2002, Kemp released a new movie with "Icelandic Dream" director, Robert I. Douglas, titled "Man like me, A" (2002), starring Icelandic comedian Jon Gnarr and Hong Kong actress/pop singer Stephanie Che.