2002 : In Cannes, Monrak Transistor was the first Thai film to be selected for Directors' Fortnight. A man from nowhere, Apichatpong Weerasethakul also surprised the Thai film community with his unknown work Blissfully Yours to enter Un Certain Regard and won the Mécénat Atladis prize.
2004 : Ong Bak was bought the rights by French distributor EuropaCorp, owned by the world-famous director Luc Besson for the releases in Europe, the US, and Australia. In the first week of release in France in April 2004 it opened in the fifth spot in the charts, selling 440,495 tickets on just 281 screens.
