Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล; ; ) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer.

Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong has directed several features and dozens of short films.

Friends and fans sometimes refer to him as "Joe" (a nickname that he, like many with similarly long Thai names, has adopted out of convenience).

The low-budget, digital movie was a spoof of Thai films of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the musicals and action films of Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat.

He made his first short film, Bullet, in 1993.

Apichatpong attended Khon Kaen University and received a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1994.

He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a Master of Fine Arts in filmmaking in 1997.

Apichatpong's feature-length debut, Dokfa nai meuman (Mysterious Object at Noon) is a documentary and was conceptually based upon the "exquisite corpse" game invented by surrealists.

He co-founded the production company, Kick the Machine, in 1999, and uses the company as a vehicle for his own works, alongside Thai experimental films and video.

The list of other founders includes Gridthiya Gaweewong and Suaraya Weerasethakul and the company co-organised the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival in 1999, 2001, 2005 and 2008.

Apichatpong's 2002 film Sud Sanaeha (Blissfully Yours) was his debut narrative feature film and was awarded the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, though it was censored in his native Thailand.

His 2004 Sud Pralad (Tropical Malady) won a Jury Prize from the same festival.

Between Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady, Apichatpong co-directed The Adventure of Iron Pussy with artist Michael Shaowanasai, who starred as the main character, a transvestite secret agent, while pop singer Krissada Terrence, better known as Noi from the Thai band Pru, portrayed the male lead.

The Adventure of Iron Pussy was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004.

For the 2005 Jeonju International Film Festival, he was commissioned to contribute to the Three Digital Short Films project, alongside two other Asian directors.

His film was called Worldly Desires, while Japanese filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto made Vital, Bullet Ballet and Song Il-gon from South Korea created Magician(s).

In 2005 Apichatpong served as the consultant on the Tsunami Digital Short Films, a series of 13 films commissioned by the Thailand Culture Ministry's Office of Contemporary Art and Culture as a memorial tribute to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the resulting tsunami that struck Thailand.

His contribution was the film Ghost of Asia.

The Thai Office of Contemporary Art and Culture also honoured Apichatpong with its 2005 Silpathorn Award for filmmaking.

The annual award is given to living contemporary artists in various disciplines.

In 2006, Apichatpong released a feature film, Syndromes and a Century, that was commissioned by Peter Sellars for the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

It premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival and screened at numerous film events, such as the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.

The film's Thai release, originally slated for 19 April 2007, was indefinitely delayed after the Thai Censorship Board demanded the removal of four scenes.

Apichatpong refused to recut the film and said he would withdraw the film from domestic circulation.

He explained his reasons for doing so in an article in the Bangkok Post:

I, as a filmmaker, treat my works as I do my own sons or daughters.

I don't care if people are fond of them or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts.

If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reason, let them be free.

His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival; Blissfully Yours, which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard program at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival; Syndromes and a Century, which premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival and was the first Thai film to be entered in competition there; and Cemetery of Splendour, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim.

When asked about the film in May 2013, Apichatpong said: "I have had enough of Iron Pussy for now. I was having a good time making it but I was not inspired."

Along with his features, Apichatpong is also known for his short films, videoworks and installations.

Apichatpong has received numerous additional accolades, including the 2016 Principal Prince Claus Award and the eighth edition of the Artes Mundi Prize.

His first English-language film was Memoria, a 2021 international collaboration set in Colombia.

Themes reflected in his films include dreams, nature, sexuality (including his own homosexuality), and Western perceptions of Thailand and Asia, and his films display a preference for unconventional narrative structures and for working with non-actors.

Apichatpong has also widely exhibited in galleries, including FACT in Liverpool, and the BFI Gallery in London, the contemporary art space within BFI Southbank.

Apichatpong was born in Bangkok, Thailand, to a Thai Chinese family.

Both his parents had been physicians who worked in a hospital in Khon Kaen, while his grandparents came from Canton.

However Apichatpong never learned to speak Chinese as his father, who was also a member of the House of Representatives, died when he was young.

Apichatpong grew up in a traditional Buddhist family, exposed to rituals that incorporate animism and Hinduism, spiritual practices retained in the surrealist tones of his works today.

Among the filmmaker's early influences are the Dada movement and Joseph Cornell's "boxes".