Pat Boonnitipat

From television cinematographer to Oscar-shortlisted director, Pat Boonnitipat achieved the apparently impossible with moving family comedy-drama How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies: it earned US$73.8 million globally and became Thailand’s first film to reach the Academy Awards shortlist. His deeply personal exploration of Thai-Chinese family dynamics sparked crying videos across social media and shattered Asian box office records. The phenomenon sparked by this film has not only created momentum for Thai cinema to gain more international attention, but also offers hope to the wider film industry—showing that small, meaningful stories can also achieve great success.