Madrid, December 21 (EFE). – The film “The Snow Society” not only took first place in the Best International Film category at the Academy Awards, but also appeared in the music, visual effects and makeup departments, which is unprecedented for A Spanish film,” its director, Juan Antonio Bayona, told EFE.
Some of the nominations (which are a first cut, narrowing the number of those eligible for awards in twelve categories to between 10 and 15 films) join the Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and the 13 achieved for Goya.
Although in the case of the Oscars, there are no nominations yet and there is “a long way to go and a path with a lot of competition,” Bayona admitted in telephone statements from Barcelona, where he was attending a screening of the film. The film was announced when it won the Hollywood Academy Award.
The director was very happy, for the film and, essentially, for “the entire team”, because it was everyone’s work that allowed “The Snow Society” to “slip into four categories” and some such as visual effects, which usually dominate large Hollywood productions.
The film “Snow Society” is based on a book by Pablo Versi collecting the testimonies of the sixteen survivors of the October 13, 1972 plane crash in the Andes mountain range that transported a rugby team from Montevideo to Chile, an event known as the “Tragedy of the Andes.” Which was already made into a film by Frank Marshall in “Viven” (1993).
On January 23, the Oscar nominations will be announced and it will be known whether the film is nominated in those four categories and more, but for Bayona, today’s announcement confirms that the film is “in.”
He added: “It is a recognition that it is a film of great value and a team of great value,” in addition to being the first time that a Spanish film has been entered in so many categories.
It will be released tomorrow in US theaters and in January on Netflix, coinciding with the Oscars voting period. Bayona is optimistic about its potential, not only because he has confidence in the film, but also because of the “enthusiastic reviews” it has been receiving since its premiere in Spain, just a week ago.
Also for Bayona, being shortlisted for the Oscars is a “relief” because she felt a great responsibility to represent Spain and because of the trust her colleagues placed in her film by naming her the Spanish nominee.
For this reason, he will continue working on promoting the film in the United States and Spain in parallel.
On the fifth day, he leaves for Los Angeles to participate in some critics’ awards ceremonies, and on the seventh day he will be at the Golden Globe Awards, then the Oscar nominations will arrive, and on February 1, the Goyas will arrive.
He stresses that he did not expect much and insists that he is “very satisfied with the work of the entire team.”
“The Snow Society” was the closing film of the recent Venice Film Festival and marks Bayona’s return to Spanish fifteen years after “The Orphanage” (2007), his acclaimed first film.
The Snow Society was filmed in the Sierra Nevada (Andalusia), Montevideo and at various locations in the Andes (in Chile and Argentina) including the Valley of Tears, the real location where the story took place. Evie
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