Kevin Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the grandson of the Hungarian-born English filmmaker Emeric Pressburger, and educated at Oxford University. He began his career with a biography of his grandfather, The Life and Death of a Screenwriter, which he turned into the documentary The Making of an Englishman. After making a series of biographical documentaries, Macdonald directed One Day in September, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary.