Phillip Warnell is an artist-filmmaker and writer from London, a first generation university graduate from a working class background.

Once an ex-butcher's apprentice, he now produces film works and written proposals that explore a range of philosophical, poetic and sensorial thematics: ideas on human-animal relations, the political and cinematic imagination, presence of those with prescient or extraordinary attributes and poetics of bodily and life-world circumstances. His work is often performative, establishing elements for a film shoot as (part) event, resulting in an interplay between scripted, documented and (sometimes) precarious filming circumstances.

His extensive written work has been included in numerous publications, journals and books. It engages with collaborative methodologies, human-animal relations, contemporary art, artists’ moving image practices, community filmmaking and film & philosophy.

He has worked at numerous universities across the UK, USA and EU, undertaking visiting professorships, fellowships and residencies, including at the Radcliffe Institute and Film Study Center at Harvard University and Beijing Normal University, China. He completed a PhD in 2020, on a decade of collaborations with esteemed philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, supervised by author and ongoing collaborator, Stephen Barber. He is also a highly renowned film mentor, having led on film knowledge transfer programs, including for C4, BBC and BFI. He is currently an Associate Professor in Film at the University of Lincoln, where is a programme leader of MA Film.