Michael Winterbottom Complete Bio & Career
Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Michael Winterbottom earned a degree at Oxford and received film training in Bristol and London. After beginning his professional career as a film editor for Thames Television, he directed two documentaries about Ingmar Bergman and a few television series, most notably the acclaimed BBC drama Family in 1994.
Winterbottom first gained recognition for his filming talents with two films in 1995. The first was Butterfly Kiss, a controversial film that looked at two lesbians who went on a killing spree across England. The second film was Go Now which is about a man whose life is turned inside out after he is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The film starred Robert Carlyle and Juliet Aubrey and showcased strong performances from both.
After making the romantic crime drama I Want You in 1998, Winterbottom directed one of his most anticipated films to date, Wonderland in 1999. An ensemble drama focusing on the lives of three lower-middle-class sisters in London, the film marked a departure from the kind of emotionally devastating works with which Winterbottom had made his name.
He won a highly coveted BAFTA Film Award for In This World, as well as the Golden Berlin Bear, the Peace Film Award and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.
In 2010, Winterbottom directed The Trip, an improvised six-episode comedy series that received several nominations and won the BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role. Next, the director turned to a more serious subject matter with his film Trishna in 2012 about a rural Indian woman (played by Freida Pinto) who falls in love with a young, wealthy British-Indian businessman.