J.A. Bayona, on the way to the Oscars

A child who used to stay up late to watch the Oscars gala will sit this year with the rest of the nominees. The Barcelona-born director J.A. Bayona has made it onto the list of nominees for Best International Feature Film with Society of the Snow. The film, which recreates the 1970s Andes plane crash, will compete with Io capitano by Matteo Garrone, Perfect Days by Wim Wenders, The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer, and Teachers' Lounge by İlker Çatak. And it will not face the multi-award-winning Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet, which frustrated its aspirations at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.

With this nomination, Bayona touches a recognition that only Spanish directors such as Alejandro Amenábar, Pedro Almodóvar, Fernando Trueba, and José Luis Garci have achieved so far. The golden statuette has long resisted bearing the national seal, despite an increasingly fruitful cinematography. The Sea Inside (2005) was the last film to win it, after All About My Mother (2000), Belle Époque (1994), and Begin the Beguine (1983). The last nomination in this category went to Almodóvar's Pain and Glory.

In addition to aspiring to be the Best International Feature Film at the 96th edition of the Oscars, Society of the Snow will compete in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category, with the nomination of Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé. Here it will face Golda, Maestro, Oppenheimer, and Poor Things.

Bayona will not be alone on March 10 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Robot Dreams by Bilbao-born Pablo Berger has also made it into this year's Oscars gala. His first foray into animation, a Catalan production by Arcadia Motion Pictures and already awarded at the European Film Awards, will face The Boy and the Heron, the latest film by Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki, Elemental, Nimona, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.