Directing

Philip Cox

Known for

Directing

Credits

11 titles

Phil Cox is the co-director of award-winning indie film collective Native Voice Films since 1998 and has directed and shot over 30 films for TV and cinema. His recent cinematic features as director/writer are THE BENGALI DETECTIVE (Sundance and Berlin premiere – HBO), LOVE HOTEL (Toronto premiere. Netflix / BBC Storyville), BETTY THEY SAY I’M DIFFERENT (IDFA premiere, ARTE / BBC / Amazon), THE CLEANER (FR2), AND THE SPIDER-MAN OF SUDAN (ARTE / GUARDIAN). He is the recipient of a British Grierson Award, a Rory Peck Award, and the Hinzpeter and Bayeux Calvados awards for his work in Sudan since 2004. Phil is the creator and writer for KHARTOUM, also contributing camera and drone work with the …

Known for

Khartoum poster
6.8

Five lives, one city, the fate of a nation. A civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer and two street boys. Five stories from Sudan weave together in search of freedom through animated dreams, street revolutions and a war from the metropolis of Khartoum to escape in East Africa.

Khartoum

2025

Armada: 12 Days to Save England poster
NR

Three-part documentary about the sinking of the Spanish Armada, featuring dramatic reconstructions and information gleaned from recently recovered documents. Dan Snow takes to the sea to tell the story of how England came within a whisker of disaster in summer 1588.

Armada: 12 Days to Save England

2015

Betty: They Say I’m Different poster
7.3

An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty Mabry Davis arrived on the scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion style and outrageous funk. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and The Commodores and married Miles Davis, turning him from jazz to funk and then went on to ignite stages in the 70s with her sassy sexed up mix of hard rock and bluesy funk, inspiring artists from Prince to Erykah Badu to Karen 0 and Peaches. Then she vanished…

Betty: They Say I’m Different

2017

The Merchant of Venice - Live at Shakespeare's Globe poster
NR

Portia, a wealthy heiress of Belmont, is forced to set her suitors a challenge. The winner will win her hand in marriage; the losers will lose her hand and much more. In Venice, the epicentre of consumption, speculation and debt, Bassanio borrows money from his friend Antonio to finance his attempt. Antonio, in turn, takes out a loan from the moneylender Shylock. The loan will be repaid when Antonio’s ships return to the city. But if the ships fail to return, and the money cannot be repaid, Antonio will give to Shylock a pound of his own flesh. And they do fail. And Shylock will have his ‘bond’.

The Merchant of Venice - Live at Shakespeare's Globe

2016

The Cleaner poster
8.0

One ordinary citizen keeps his family out of poverty by cleaning up bloody crime scenes across Mexico City. This innovative feature, mixing documentary, surreal animations and a Mariachi chorus centres around Donovan Tavera and his struggle to continue his bloody work whilst keeping not only his wife and daughter together but also his mind. The film brings many of the haunting dead clients of Donovan back to cinematic life and thus denounces the terrible violence raging in Mexico. It thereby reveals the extraordinary balancing act between life and death needed to survive in modern Mexico.

The Cleaner

2021

The Spider-Man of Sudan poster
6.2

In Sudan's capital, Khartoum, an anonymous protester dressed as Spider-Man joins hundreds of thousands of protesters desperate to protect their fragile civilian government after the military coup in October 2021.

The Spider-Man of Sudan

2022

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Khartoum poster
6.8

Five lives, one city, the fate of a nation. A civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer and two street boys. Five stories from Sudan weave together in search of freedom through animated dreams, street revolutions and a war from the metropolis of Khartoum to escape in East Africa.

Khartoum

2025

Khartoum poster
6.8

Five lives, one city, the fate of a nation. A civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer and two street boys. Five stories from Sudan weave together in search of freedom through animated dreams, street revolutions and a war from the metropolis of Khartoum to escape in East Africa.

Khartoum

2025

Betty: They Say I’m Different poster
7.3

An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty Mabry Davis arrived on the scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion style and outrageous funk. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and The Commodores and married Miles Davis, turning him from jazz to funk and then went on to ignite stages in the 70s with her sassy sexed up mix of hard rock and bluesy funk, inspiring artists from Prince to Erykah Badu to Karen 0 and Peaches. Then she vanished…

Betty: They Say I’m Different

2017

Betty: They Say I’m Different poster
7.3

An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty Mabry Davis arrived on the scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion style and outrageous funk. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and The Commodores and married Miles Davis, turning him from jazz to funk and then went on to ignite stages in the 70s with her sassy sexed up mix of hard rock and bluesy funk, inspiring artists from Prince to Erykah Badu to Karen 0 and Peaches. Then she vanished…

Betty: They Say I’m Different

2017

The Cleaner poster
8.0

One ordinary citizen keeps his family out of poverty by cleaning up bloody crime scenes across Mexico City. This innovative feature, mixing documentary, surreal animations and a Mariachi chorus centres around Donovan Tavera and his struggle to continue his bloody work whilst keeping not only his wife and daughter together but also his mind. The film brings many of the haunting dead clients of Donovan back to cinematic life and thus denounces the terrible violence raging in Mexico. It thereby reveals the extraordinary balancing act between life and death needed to survive in modern Mexico.

The Cleaner

2021

The Spider-Man of Sudan poster
6.2

In Sudan's capital, Khartoum, an anonymous protester dressed as Spider-Man joins hundreds of thousands of protesters desperate to protect their fragile civilian government after the military coup in October 2021.

The Spider-Man of Sudan

2022

Captured in Sudan poster
NR

While reporting on the conflict in Darfur, Phil Cox and Daoud Hari are kidnapped by a local militia. Despite being imprisoned, the two men manage to surreptitiously film their capture. Follow Phil and Daoud on their harrowing journey, from capture to release.

Captured in Sudan

2017

Captured in Sudan poster
NR

While reporting on the conflict in Darfur, Phil Cox and Daoud Hari are kidnapped by a local militia. Despite being imprisoned, the two men manage to surreptitiously film their capture. Follow Phil and Daoud on their harrowing journey, from capture to release.

Captured in Sudan

2017

A Detective from Bengal poster
10.0

Chubby, dance-obsessed private-detective Rajesh Ji and his motley band of helpers tackle poisonings, adultery and the occasional murder on the frenzied streets of Kolkata.

A Detective from Bengal

2011