Jakrawal Nilthamrong graduated in Bangkok from Silpakorn University’s faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts in 2000. His background as an art student brought him to study filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA. There, he discovered possibilities of making narrative in unconventional way. Jakrawal started experimenting with video and interactive installations. He exhibited art works in both gallery contexts and film festivals since 2002. His early video DRIPPING (2004) won a prize from the 10th Thai Short Film and Video Festival in Bangkok and his thesis film PATTERNS OF TRANSCENDENCE (2006), an experimental narrative about reincarnation of a Hindu God, has screened at many international venues including the 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

After graduation Jakrawal received the MFA Fellowship 2006 Award from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2007 he was selected to the Artist-in-Resident program at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam among the 25 upcoming young artists from around the world.

Jakrawal’s short film A VOYAGE OF FORETELLER, supported by the Rijksakademie, screened at the 53rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany, and the 2007 International Film Festival Rotterdam. A feature-length project of this title is also currently in preparation. His latest short films, ORCHESTRA and MAN AND GRAVITY, screened at Rotterdam in 2009 – the latter in the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films.

Jakrawal’s works have also participated at a number of international film festivals including Clermont-Ferrand (France), 25 FPS (Croatia), Amsterdam Short (Netherlands), Tampere (Finland), Dublin (Ireland), Video Art Biennial (Israel) and Sydney (Australia).

UNREAL FOREST is his first feature-length film.