Michael Winterbottom

Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Film And Television (2012-2013)

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Film and Television is a unique initiative at the University of Oxford at the forefront of the serious study of contemporary film.

The Visiting Professorship in Film and Television has been made possible by the generous support of the Woodward Charitable Trust and is hosted by St Anne’s College, Oxford.

Michael Winterbottom is a British filmmaker.

Michael Winterbottom begun his series with a lecture on Genres, Adaptation and Contemporary Cinema. He discussed a range of cinematic topics including the nature of his particular aesthetic and the realism in which he tends to ground his storytelling. Alluding to his preference for one camera filming and hand-held footage, and his practice of not using fixed sets, he reflected on his desire to break away from the artificial feel of filming and embed as much realism into the narrative and aesthetic as possible.

In an evening which offered a fascinating glimpse into the creative process of filmmaking, Winterbottom’s humble determination for his films to reflect the incoherence and messiness of reality, rather than the well-constructed artificiality of a film set, shone through.