Michael Winterbottom

Michael Winterbottom (born 29 March 1961) is an English film director who embarked on his illustrious career in British television before progressing into features. In his career, he has seen three of his films, namely Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland, and 24 Hour Party People, compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Winterbottom 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 Guantanamo. He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire and studied English at Balliol College, Oxford before attending film school at Bristol University. Notable projects from his early television career, which started in 1989, include a documentary about Ingmar Bergman and dramatized series like Time Riders and Boon. His first collaboration with writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce was the 1990 television film Forget About Me. Over the course of his career, he has also ventured into various genres, from drama and thriller to sci-fi and comedy. His latest project, Shoshana, is a political thriller set in the 1930s/1940s British Mandatory Palestine.