Shot on 16mm film rather than digital. Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul wanted to film in this format as the film is all about dying traditions.
A central theme of the film is the transformation and possible extinction of cinema itself. The film consists of six reels each shot in a different cinematic style. The styles include, by the words of the director, "old cinema with stiff acting and classical staging", "documentary style", "costume drama" and "my kind of film when you see long takes of animals and people driving". Apichatpong Weerasethakul further explained in an interview with Bangkok Post: "When you make a film about recollection and death, you realize that cinema is also facing death. Uncle Boonmee is one of the last pictures shot on film - now everybody shoots digital. It's my own little lamentation".
The film is part autobiographical as, like Uncle Boonmee, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's father also died of kidney failure.
Audience members at the Cannes Film Festival are notorious for their visceral reactions to films. Booing is commonplace as are walkouts. People started walking out of this film after the first 6 minutes.
The first Thai film to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It was the first Asian film to win the award since 1997, when L'anguilla (1997) tied with Il sapore della ciliegia (1997).