Biography

Julia van de Graaff is a Dutch actress of partly Polish-Russian descent with 28 years of experience in theatre, television and film. Since 2015 she has been active as a producer, from 2020 with LYNX Film, a new Dutch film production company. With a keen eye for stories with underlying social issues LYNX produces films that are cinematographically enticing.

In 1994 Julia graduated from the actors department of the Theatre Academy in Maastricht. After her graduation she took additional courses with Krystian Lupa and Krzysztof Globisz at the Theatre School in Krakau, Poland. She started her career at the Dutch National Theatre and played a wide variety of parts with several theatre companies like Golden Palace, Mighty Society, Bonte Hond and Blau Hynder.

LYNX Films first feature, 'Under Water' by Edgar Kapp and Kuba Szutkowski, had its world premiere September 11th 2022 at Film by the Sea. In October it premiered internationally in the Competition 1-2 at the 38th Warsaw International Film Festival. Shortly after that it had its North American premiere at the 29th Austin Film Festival and was nominated for Narrative Feature Award (out of 5400 submissions). On April 20 2023 'Under Water' had it's theatrical release in Dutch film theatres by distributor Amstelfilm. 'Under Water' has also been officially selected to CineQuest Film & VR Festival (#1 Film Festival according to USA Today) and will have its Bay Area Premiere August 22nd 2023.

Julia is one of the co-writers of 'Under Water' and played the antagonist, Nel, an avid 70 year old doomsday prepper, for which Julia was prepared not only to undergo a radical transformation in make-up, but also to endure a severe allergic reaction and thus to perform even better despite or because of it all.

'Sober', a short by Joël Duinkerke, after a screenplay by Julia van de Graaff in which she played the leading part, premiered internationally at Raindance in 2021 (out of 12000 submissions in shorts). Also that year, at Topaz Film Festival (a.k.a. Flicks by chicks) it won Best Foreign Short. It received Best Provincial short at Middelburg IFF in 2022. 'Sober' was nominated for Best Dutch Short and received a 'special mention' at the New Renaissance FF Amsterdam 2023.

For television, Julia played several guest parts in a.o. 'Boks', 'Keizer & de Boer', 'Spanga's', 'Zestien Miljoen Rechters', 'Snuf de Hond en het Spookslot' and 'Flikken Maastricht'. She played a steady part as Nadia in the Frisian series 'Dankert & Dankert' by Steven de Jong.

She performed in several short films such as 'Spin of Youth' by Joël Duinkerke, 'Lion. Panther. She-Wolf.' by Véras Fawaz and 'Black' by Tommie Geraedts. She received the Best Actress Award for 'Moker' (Sledgehammer) by Kuba Szutkowski and Edgar Kapp during 48h Film Project Rotterdam 2018.