J.A. Bayona’s ‘Society of the Snow (La Sociedad de la nieve)’ to Close 2023 Venice Film Festival

Society of the Snow (La Sociedad de la nieve) directed by J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, The Impossible, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) is the Closing Film, Out of Competition, for the 80th Venice International Film Festival within La Biennale di Venezia and will be screened on Saturday, September 9 in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Lido di Venezia after the awards ceremony. The festival runs from August 30 to September 9. The film is set for North American and international release by Netflix.

The announcement comes a day after it was revealed that the festival’s original opener, Luca Guadagnino’s tennis world-set love triangle Challengers, starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, was pulled by MGM in the wake of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which prevents actors from doing any promotion of current or previous work. The strike began on July 14 after negotiations broke down with AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), who refused to pay actors a fair wage, allow them autonomy over their likeness in future potential AI-generated project, and more.

Society of the Snow (La Sociedad de la nieve) tells the story of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which had been chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, crashed in the heart of the Andes in 1972. Only 29 of its 45 passengers survived the accident. Trapped in one of the most hostile and inaccessible environments on the planet, they have to resort to extreme measures to stay alive. In one of the most indelible survival tales of the end of the 20th century, the story has been told and referenced through books, feature films and documentaries since 1973, most famously in the 1993 film Alive, starring Ethan Hawke and directed by Frank Marshall.

Society of the Snow (La Sociedad de la nieve) is J.A. Bayona’s fifth feature film, and his first to be shot in Spanish in sixteen years. It is produced by Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida and J.A. Bayona, and stars Enzo Vogrincic, Matías Recalt, Agustín Pardella, Esteban Kukuriczka and Tomas Wolf. Screenplayby J.A. Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques, Nicolás Casariego from the novel by Pablo Vierci. Director of Photography Pedro Luque.