J.A. Bayona On Tackling The Unthinkable In Spain’s Oscar Entry ‘Society Of The Snow’ And Why It Was Necessary To Tell This Tragic 50 Year Old True Story From A New Perspective – Behind The Lens

In a remarkably short period of time Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona (aka J.A. Bayona) has risen to the top of his profession with an international career spanning indie movies to blockbusters and key legacy titles. Beginning in 2007 with his breakthrough, The Orphanage which wowed Cannes and went on to win 7 Goyas (Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars), he memorably jumped into English language filmmaking with the harrowing 2012 disaster drama, The Impossible which starred Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and a young Tom Holland in his first major film role. 2016’s acclaimed A Monster Calls, and 2018’s behemoth Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom followed, along with such iconic TV series as Penny Dreadful and most recently Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power.

With the Netflix true life drama, Society Of The Snow which closed this year’s Venice Film Festival and has been chosen as Spain’s official entry into the Oscar Best International Film race, Bayona returns to his roots for his first Spanish language film since The Oprhanage, and it is one that he was adamant be told for the first time in a language and a screenplay that not only tells the story of the survivors of the tragic crash in the remote heart of the Andes of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which had been chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, but to also tell it from the perspective of those who did not live. Those who did survive had to resort to some extreme measures to make it themselves as they remained trapped for over two months in a remote environment that was impenatrable.

Bayona joins me for this week’s edition of my Deadline video series, Behind The Lens to discuss the challenges and rewards of telling this story with fresh eyes in a way truly authentic to it. He also talks about the staging of the stunning plane crash itself, how the survivors helped give new perspective to this production, why it was important to go to the actual locations despite daunting logistics, and so much more.

To watch our conversation and to go ‘behind the lens’ with J.A. Bayona just click on the link above.

Join me every Friday during Oscar season for another episode of Behind The Lens.