Apichatpong Weerasethakul was born in 1970 in Bangkok, Thailand. After obtaining a first degree in architecture in Thailand, he studied fine arts and filmmaking in Chicago. He started to make film and video shorts in America in the early 1990s, and then established a studio company, Kick the Machine, in his native Thailand in 1999. Feature movies directed by Apichatpong have been selected for or won awards at many film festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, the Jeonju International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, and Tokyo Filmex. He is also active in the field of art, with his video installations and other works attracting great acclaim at major international exhibitions such as the Istanbul Biennial, the Taipei Biennial, and the Busan Biennale.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul was co-director of the 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, presented in Australia with the support of MAAP.