Michael Winterbottom (born 29 March 1961) is an English film director. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films—Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), Wonderland (1999) and 24 Hour Party People (2002)—have competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He and co-director Mat Whitecross won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival for their work on The Road to Guantánamo (2006).
His production company, Revolution Films, has a first-look deal with Fremantle.
Early life Winterbottom was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. He went to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, and then studied English at Balliol College, Oxford, before going to film school at Bristol University, where his contemporaries included Marc Evans.
Early television career Winterbottom's television directing career began in 1989, with a documentary about Ingmar Bergman and an episode of the children's series Dramarama. He followed this with the 1990 television film Forget About Me, starring Ewen Bremner, which followed two British soldiers who become involved in a love triangle with a young Hungarian hitch-hiker on their way to Budapest for a Simple Minds concert. It was his first collaboration with writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce; they would go on to make six more films together. Shot on 16 mm film, it was shown at a few European film festivals. In 1991, he directed episodes of various TV shows, including the four-part children's series Time Riders and an episode of Boon. In 1992, he directed the television film Under the Sun about a young British woman travelling in Greece, starring Kate Hardie. It was shot on Super 16 mm film, and gained him further attention. In 1993, he directed an episode of the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries; Love Lies Bleeding, a television film written by Ronan Bennett about a convicted IRA member on a 24-hour home leave from prison in Belfast; and The Mad Woman in the Attic, the pilot of Jimmy McGovern's mystery series Cracker. He next directed the 1994 mini-series Family, written by Roddy Doyle, the author of The Commitments. It was a success in Ireland and led to a debate there about the depiction of both the working classes and spousal abuse in the media. His final early television project was a 1995 episode of the documentary series Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, focusing on Scandinavian silent cinema.
Film career 1990s Butterfly Kiss, Winterbottom's 1995 debut feature, followed a mentally unbalanced lesbian serial killer and her submissive lover/accomplice as they fall in love while slaughtering their way across the motorways of Northern England. It found only a limited release.
That same year, he reunited with Jimmy McGovern for the BBC television film Go Now, the story of a young man who falls ill with multiple sclerosis just as he meets the love of his life. Focusing on the turmoil this causes the couple, the film was given a theatrical release in many countries. It was also the first film from Winterbottom's company Revolution Films.
His 1996 film Jude starred Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. It was an adaptation of Winterbottom's favourite novel, Thomas Hardy's bleak classic Jude the Obscure, a tale of forbidden love between two cousins. The film brought Winterbottom wider recognition, his first screening at Cannes and numerous Hollywood offers.
1997's Welcome to Sarajevo was filmed on location in the titular city, mere months after the Siege of Sarajevo had ended. It was based on the true story of British reporter, Michael Nicholson, who spirited a young orphan girl out of the war zone to safety in Britain.
His 1998 film I Want You is a neo-noir sex thriller set in a decaying British seaside resort town. Starring Rachel Weisz and Alessandro Nivola, it was inspired by the Elvis Costello song of the same name and shot by Polish cinematographer Sławomir Idziak, who won an Honourable Mention award at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival for his work.
He followed that with 1999's With or Without You, a Belfast-set comedy starring Christopher Eccleston, about a couple trying desperately to conceive, who each have past loves re-enter their lives.
That same year, he also released Wonderland, which marked a shift in style for Winterbottom. Its handheld photography and naturalistic dialogue drew comparisons to Robert Altman. Starring Gina McKee, Shirley Henderson, Molly Parker, John Simm, Ian Hart and Stuart Townsend, it is the story of three sisters and their extended family over Guy Fawkes Day weekend in London.Wise, Damon; "Smile — you're on candid camera" The Guardian, 9 September 2000 It featured an orchestral score by minimalist composer Michael Nyman,Jeffries, Stuart; "The walking wounded of Wonderland" The Guardian, 18 January 2000 who would become a frequent collaborator with Winterbottom.
2000s Winterbottom's biggest-budgeted film up to that point, at $20 million, his 2000 film The Claim was an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge set in 1860s California. Shot in the wilds of Canada, it was not a financial success and proved an ordeal to make, with Winterbottom himself getting frostbite. Many of the production difficulties, including unsuccessful attempts to cast Madonna, were explained to the public on the film's unusually frank official website.
24 Hour Party People, released in 2001, documents the anarchic, drug and sex-fueled rise and fall of Factory Records and the music scene in Manchester from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. It would be the first of many collaborations between Winterbottom and actor Steve Coogan, who starred as broadcaster/music-mogul Tony Wilson.Morley, Paul; "Shooting the past" The Guardian, 23 February 2001
His 2002 film In This World depicts the journey of two Afghan refugees from Pakistan, across the Middle East and Europe to Britain, which they try to enter with the help of people smugglers. Shot on digital video at a cost of $2 million, it featured non-professional actors and brought Winterbottom numerous awards, including a Golden Bear and a BAFTA for best film not in the English language.Bedell, Geraldine; "A Winterbottom's tale" The Guardian, 1 February 2004
Code 46, released in 2003, is a sci-fi retelling of the Oedipus myth, in a world where cloning has created people so interrelated that strict laws (the Code 46 of the title) govern human reproduction. The romantic mystery film starred Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton. It was shot in Shanghai, Dubai and Rajasthan, which were mixed to create a futuristic multi-ethnic culture.
2004's 9 Songs gained attention as the most sexually explicit film ever to receive a certificate for general release in the UK. It charts a year-long relationship between two lovers, almost exclusively through their sexual interaction and various rock concerts the couple attend. The film became notorious in the UK for its candid scenes of unsimulated sex between the leads, Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley.Jeffries, Stuart; "'I am the opposite of ashamed'" The Guardian, 24 January 2005
His 2005 film A Cock and Bull Story, released in the United States and Australia as Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, is an adaptation of the famously "unfilmable" The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, an early novel.Mullan, John; "A taste of Shandy" The Guardian, 18 October 2005 The film is a faux documentary about the making of a film of Tristram Shandy. Steve Coogan stars as himself and as Shandy. The film marked the end of Winterbottom's lengthy collaboration with Frank Cottrell Boyce,Winterbottom films scripted by Cottrell Boyce include A Cock and Bull Story, Code 46, 24 Hour Party People, The Claim, Welcome To Sarajevo, Butterfly Kiss and Forget About Me. who chose to be credited under the pseudonym Martin Hardy.
The Road to Guantanamo is a 2006 docu-drama about the "Tipton Three", three British Muslims captured by US forces in Afghanistan who spent two years as prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as alleged enemy combatants.Stafford Smith, Clive; "Out of sight" The Guardian, 14 February 2006 It was shot in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran (which doubled for Cuba) in the autumn of 2005. It premiered at the Berlinale on 14 February 2006. It debuted in the UK on television, on 9 March, as it was co-financed by Channel 4.Sweney, Mark; "Winterbottom signs Channel 4 exclusive" The Guardian, 14 February 2006
2007's A Mighty Heart is based on the book by Mariane Pearl, wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl.Pulver, Andrew; "Rapid response unit" The Guardian, 14 September 2007 The film stars Angelina Jolie and focuses on the pregnant Mariane's search for her missing husband in Pakistan in 2002. Produced by Jolie's then-partner Brad Pitt, it was shot in the autumn of 2006 in India, Pakistan and France and premiered out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2007.
In 2008, his film Genova was released, a family drama about an Englishman, played by Colin Firth, who moves his two American daughters to Italy following the death of his wife. Once there, the oldest girl starts exploring her sexuality, while the younger girl begins to see the ghost of her mother.Johnston, Sheila; "Michael Winterbottom interview: on his film 'Genova'" The Daily Telegraph, 31 March 2009 It co-stars Catherine Keener and Hope Davis and was filmed in the titular city of Genoa, Italy, during the summer of 2007.
In 2009, Winterbottom was reunited with his The Road to Guantanamo co-director Mat Whitecross on a documentary based on Naomi Klein's bestselling book The Shock Doctrine. The film follows the use of upheavals and disasters by various governments as a cover for the implementation of free market economic policies that benefit only an elite few. Klein at first disowned the film after learning that it would be composed almost entirely of period footage and narration, with virtually no interview material with sources.Jones, Sam; "Naomi Klein disowns Winterbottom adaptation of Shock Doctrine" The Guardian, 28 August 2009 The film premiered at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and aired in the UK on Channel 4's More4 documentary channel on 1 September 2009. It made its American premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, alongside Winterbottom's following film. At the festival, Klein, who had reconciled herself with the filmmakers' approach, participated in a Q&A with Winterbottom and Whitecross.
2010s Winterbottom's 2010 film The Killer Inside Me is an adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1952 noir novel. Starring Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba, it follows a 1950s small town Texas sheriff (Affleck), who is also a psychotic killer, through his descent into complete madness. It premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and caused controversy for the realistic brutality of its violence toward women. In his defence, Winterbottom said, "It's not the real world. It's kind of a parallel version of the real world... I was taken in by that world."Sherryl Connelly, "Jessica Alba leaves screening of 'The Killer Inside Me,' stirring outrage at Sundance over violence", Daily News (New York), 26 January 2010