15 Facts About Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien graduated in 1985 from Saint Martin's School of Art, where he studied painting and fine art film.

Isaac Julien co-founded Sankofa Film and Video Collective in 1983, and was a founding member of Normal Films in 1991.

In 1980, Isaac Julien organized the Sankofa Film and Video Collective with, among others, Martina Attille, Maureen Blackwood, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, and which was "dedicated to developing an independent black film culture in the areas of production, exhibition and audience".

Isaac Julien received a BA in fine-art film from Central Saint Martins School of Art, London, where he worked alongside artists including Sandra Lahire, Malcolm Le Grice, Lis Rhodes, Vera Neubauer, Adam Finch, and Tina Keane, and completed his postdoctoral studies at Les entrepreneurs de l'audiovisuel europeen, Brussels.

Isaac Julien's following grew when his film Young Soul Rebels won the Semaine de la Critique prize for best film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991.

One of the objectives of Isaac Julien's work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting these to construct a powerfully visual narrative.

Isaac Julien cites cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall as an important influence on his filmmaking.

Isaac Julien involves Hall in his work once more in the 1996 film Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask, which tells the story of Frantz Fanon, the theorist and psychiatrist from Martinique.

In 2019, Isaac Julien was a member of the jury that selected Arthur Jafa as winner of the Prince Pierre Foundation's International Contemporary Art Prize.

Isaac Julien was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001, and in 2003 he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Kunstfilm Biennale in Cologne for his single-screen version of Baltimore.

Isaac Julien was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to the arts and was knighted in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to diversity and inclusion in art.

Isaac Julien was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University's Departments of Afro-American and Visual Environmental Studies, and was a visiting seminar leader in the MFA Art Practice programme at the School of Visual Arts, and a visiting professor at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York City.

Isaac Julien was a research fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and in September 2009 he became a professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.

In 2018, Isaac Julien joined UC Santa Cruz, where he is the distinguished professor of the arts.

Isaac Julien is a patron of the Live Art Development Agency.