Born in Thailand, Anocha Suwichakornpong is one of the nation’s most exciting up-and-coming names whose dreamlike works have been compared to Apichatpong Weerasethakul. She graduated from an MFA film program at Columbia University and her thesis film, Graceland (2006), became the first Thai short film to be officially selected by Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Cinefondation Award. Mundane History, her first feature, won numerous awards including the Tiger Award at Rotterdam and the NETPAC Prize at the Golden Horse Film Festival. Anocha’s second feature, By the Time It Gets Dark (2016), garnered her considerable international exposure when it premiered in Locarno and later screened in festivals such as Toronto, BFI London, Venice and Rotterdam. The film won three Thailand National Film Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. By the Time It Gets Dark was chosen as Thailand’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film in 2017. She collaborated with UK director Ben Rivers on Krabi 2562 (2019) and received her first APSA nomination for directing.
Ben Rivers is an artist and filmmaker from the United Kingdom. After directing a series of short films, his breakthrough came with Two Years at Sea (2010), which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice Film Festival and the CPH:DOX Award. He won the Baloise Art Prize, Art Basel 42, for Sack Barrow (2011). He has held solo art shows and recently won the second EYE Art Film Prize. In 2016, his film The Sky Trembles and the Earth is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers (2015) premiered in the main competition at Locarno International Film Festival. He collaborated with Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong on Krabi 2562 (2019) and received his first APSA nomination for directing.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
