I was born, raised, and studied filmmaking in Brussels, Belgium.
I began my career as a camera assistant, an experience that gave me the opportunity to work alongside acclaimed directors such as Ken Loach, Jaco Van Dormael, David Mackenzie, and to assist cinematographers including Chris Menges, Barry Ackroyd, Christophe Beaucarne, and Robbie Ryan , among many others. Being able to watch these filmmakers at work, was an extraordinary education and a constant source of inspiration.
My first major breakthrough as a cinematographer came with the Belgian-Romanian documentary “WAITING FOR AUGUST”, directed by Teodora Ana Mihai. Over the course of a year, we followed Georgiana, a 15-year-old girl forced to become the head of her family after her mother left her seven children behind to look for work in Italy. The film went on to win the Best International Feature at Hot Docs in Toronto in 2014, Best International Documentary at Karlovy Vary, and received a European Film Award nomination, alongside twelve other awards around the world.
That same year, I met Jonathan Littell, winner of the 2006 Prix Goncourt. Together, we immersed ourselves in the complex and disturbing story of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel and mystical movement in northern Uganda built on the abduction of children and teenagers—more than 60,000 over a period of 25 years. The resulting documentary, “WRONG ELEMENTS”, premiered in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.
From there, things began to move quickly. One project led to another, opening doors to very different worlds and ways of making films.
“THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE”, directed by Rwandan filmmaker Joel Karekezi, starring Marc Zinga and Stéphane Bak, premiered in Toronto before winning l’Etalon d’Or de Yenenga at FESPACO 2019, one of the most important film festivals on the African continent.
“THE WALL”, directed by Philippe Van Leeuw (Insyriated) and starring Vicky Krieps, took me to the United States for my first feature there. I then shot “DREAMING WALLS” in NYC, a documentary by Jo Rohanne and Maya Duverdier about the legendary Chelsea Hotel, produced by Martin Scorsese. The film premiered in Europe at the Berlinale in the Panorama section in 2022, followed by its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
I later met the multidisciplinary Belgo-Congolese artist Baloji, and we began a collaboration that took us into music, performance, and short-form filmmaking in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Together, we made several projects, including “ZOMBIES” and “PEAU DE CHAGRIN / BLEU DE NUIT”. That collaboration eventually led to his first feature film, “OMEN”, that opened at Cannes Film Festival in 2023, where it received the New Voice Award in the Un Certain Regard selection. The film went on to represent Belgium at the Academy Awards and earned me the Magritte du Cinéma for Best Cinematography in 2024.
The following year, I teamed up with French cinematographer Sylvain Verdet on “IMAGO”, a documentary directed by Déni Oumar Pitsaev and selected for La Semaine de la Critique 2025. After receiving the French Touch Jury Prize, the film went on to win the Golden Eye for Best Documentary, Cannes film festival’s highest distinction for documentary filmmaking.
More recently, I shot “A GIRL STORY”, directed by Judith Godrèche, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival 2026.
Looking back, what connects these projects for me is perhaps less a particular genre or way of working than a curiosity for people, places, and stories that I have not encountered before. Each film has taken me somewhere unexpected, and each collaboration has shaped the way I see and approach cinematography.
EMAIL —
j.philippe@hotmail.com
PHONE —
+32 472 35 32 88
RESUME —
EQUIPMENT—
I co-founded, with director and friend, Didier Minne, the Brussels ‘s based rental company, Kinodoc. Check us out !
