Why watch The Snow Society?: the Spanish film nominated for two Oscars

Although it was an open secret, it did not become official until the Academy showed the list of candidates. The Snow Societythe film with which JA Bayona teleports the viewer to the tragic and almost eternal accident of flight 571 of the Uruguayan air force in the Andes, back in the black month of October 1972, is one of the Oscar nominees for best international film. And opt for gold twice: The film is also a candidate for the statuette in the category of best makeup and hairstyling.

The success that the film has achieved since it saw the light of day is unquestionable. Both in movie theaters and in living rooms. This is supported by record-breaking data: in just eleven days after being released on Netflix, it entered the list of the 10 most viewed non-English-speaking films in the history of the platform. What’s more, three days after it was released it added a whopping number of 22,900,000 views and a total of 55,800,000 hours viewed. And these numbers just skyrocket. Every day more.

Although mathematics is not useful to evaluate a movie or to recommend it, it is a useful thermometer, at least, to evaluate the mobilizing interest that it exerts on people. And this is, undeniably, one of the most striking reasons to choose to see it.

An immersive experience

The powerful use of the environment is one of the strongest pillars that support Bayonne’s genius. The cameras panned to the Valley of Tears of the Andes to film the endless day-to-day life of the surviving passengers, Montevideo to collect the previous moments in which the Uruguayans decide, laughing and dreaming, to venture on that flight now Sierra Nevadainfiltrated into this South American cocktail, where the replica of the crashed plane was established.

A meticulous script is the framework where the story acquires the ability to pierce the skin. The mountain speaks silently. And silence is another character. Although there is a precedent for this film in Hollywood, The story that the Spanish director exercises is much more intimate and manages to inject the burden and sadness in a dose that does not expel the liberation, the joy and the desire to take on the world every day. Eating human flesh remains in the background: Bayona’s film is an ode to life.

Another reason to see the film is the double experience that hides. Although there are no scenes left over, something in itself very valuable in a film that, as dictated by the growing Hollywood trend, exceeds two hours, the story can still be expanded further and gain an extra dimension with the book of the same name by Pablo Vierci, republished in 2022 under the Alrevs publishing housewhich collects the individual experiences of the survivors and from which Bayona was inspired to make the film.

This circle closes with an undeniable symptom of its cinematographic quality: the Oscar nomination. And not in any way: this same year they have been left out Extra forma de vidathe short by Pedro Almodvar, and Penlope Cruz, whose name was mentioned as a possible candidate for best supporting actress for Ferrari. Along with Bayona’s film, Robot Dreams, by Pablo Verger, is up for best animated feature film. The Spanish flag stands very high in Los Angeles. At least as high as the Andes.