Michael Winterbottom (b. March 29, 1961 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is a prolific British filmmaker who has directed sixteen films in the past thirteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his movies, Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland and 24 Hour Party People, have been nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Winterbottom went to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, taking his O Levels in an accelerated 4 years, and then attended Oxford University before going to film school at Bristol University.

He has two daughters with his ex-partner, author Sabrina Broadbent. In 2004, his ex-wife published her first novel, Descent, a work of fiction about a couple's relationship during the last decade of the 20th century. It's the story of "a strangely unaware psychiatric nurse, a wife, mother, daughter, who's trying to keep a whole lot of stuff airborne while things fall apart, inside and out. Her husband Mark is a filmmaker, usually absent, on small-budget art films in out of the way places". The film director loses wallets (like Winterbottom ), scripts and relationships "with alarming frequency". Ms Broadbent currently lives in the Crouch End area of North London with their two daughters.