Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Michael Winterbottom earned a degree
in English at Oxford before studying film at Bristol and London. He
first worked in the industry as a film editor for Thames Television,
directing two documentaries about Ingmar Bergman. He formed working
relationship with screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce when they teamed
for a couple of youth-oriented TV comedy-dramas, beginning with the
BAFTA nominated The Strangers (1989). He then progressed to directing
prime-time TV series including Cracker and The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries.
A TV breakthrough came with his four-part BBC serial, Family (1994),
Roddy Doyle’s tale of a dysfunctional Irish working-class family. He
first earned recognition with his debut feature Butterfly Kiss (1995),
a story of lesbian lovers on a serial killing spree along the roads
of Northern England.
In 1994, Winterbottom, formed Revolution Films with producer
Andrew Eaton. Winterbottom next film was
Jude
(1996), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's bleak novel Jude the Obscure starring
Christopher Eccleston and
Kate
Winslet. His next film was the challenging Welcome to Sarajevo (1997),
set in the former Yugoslavia it focused on the experiences of ITN journalist
Michael Nicholson and civilians in war-torn Sarajevo. Next, Winterbottom
directed I Want You (1998), a voyeuristic romantic drama set at the coastal
town of Hastings and starring Rachel Weisz. The wistful metropolitan family
portrait
Wonderland
(1999), won Best Film at the British Independent Film Awards. That same
year he released the marital drama With or Without You (1998). This was
followed by the Gold Rush love story The Claim (2000). Next came another
collaboration with Frank Cottrell Boyce, and a third film to take its
title from a pop song,
24-Hour
Party People (2002). The film charts the Manchester music scene while
centring on the rise and fall of Factory records impresario Tony Wilson.
