There is something that Juan Antonio Bayona (Barcelona, 1975) is especially excited about. “It makes me very happy that my parents come.” Piedad and Juan Antonio will be at the Dolby Theater at the Oscars. This couple from Barcelona, from Nou Barris, will be able to enjoy, and will surely also have to contain their nerves, that moment in which their son will be summoned in that auditorium by The Snow Society, one of the five nominated in the international film category.
There they will both be, in their evening dress and tuxedo, surrounded by the big stars of Hollywood. It's never too late. Now in their eighties, they have made their first transatlantic trip. JA or Jota, as some call him, did not hide his pride and recalled that her father is a great film buff, who for years dedicated himself to painting the marquees of the Balañá cinemas.
This is how the grateful son expressed himself during a lunch at the Telefèric Barcelona restaurant in Los Angeles, which this weekend has become the setting for the party dedicated to the Spanish nominees for the Oscars, with special reference to the Catalans for being the origin of the production of Robot dreams, which competes for best animated film, and the influence of Bayonne's Barcelona origin. His survival story also includes two other Catalan nominees, David Martí and Montse Ribé, who together with Ana López Puigcerber (from Madrid) aspire to the makeup and hairdressing statuettes.
The director's baton has not only produced an acclaimed film, but has also meant working full time for the last eight months promoting this miraculous society to captivate the members of the Academy. “We are already winners,” he comments as soon as he sits at the table next to the producers Belén Atienza and Sandra Hernando, and on the other side the trio of makeup artists. That room was decorated for the occasion. David Martí and Montse Ribé appear in a framed photograph just behind. The two together, in black and white. The two won the Oscar in 2007 for their work in Pan's Labyrinth, by Guillermo del Toro.
Bayona praises their collective task, more complex due to its naturalism, compared to cases such as the aging of Bradley Cooper in Maestro or Daniel Defoe in Poor Creatures
“We are going to stay at the doors,” murmurs the Barcelona director. He knows that he has very important rivals. “Getting here is already a triumph and the impact the film has had on the world makes me very happy,” he says. “More than 200 million people have seen it, it is the most viewed on Netflix, and it is very loved for the number of messages they write to me,” he adds.
Another phenomenon that has caused its creation is the response of young people, teenagers, who have watched it streaming and then gone to the cinema with friends to comment on it. They have discovered the attraction for real stories, perhaps tired of excessive fantasies.
“It is partly relaxing to know that we are not favorites. If we lose, I’ll be glad I don’t have to go out and make the speech,” she jokes. He assures that he has not written anything for those acknowledgments, partly so that it does not work as a bad fario. Accustomed as he is to collecting prizes, he will improvise. “The awards are forgotten and the movies are remembered,” he responds.
One of the things that satisfies him most about this film is the recognition it received privately from big names and colleagues in the industry. “People I have grown up with and admired have congratulated me,” he confessed without wanting to name names. In an industry like this, this recognition takes on more value as it is a film spoken in Spanish and with unknown actors.
Your best movie? “I don't know, because you have to let time pass to constantly watch that movie you've made. The truth is that they always surprise you and when you see them with an audience you always have a very different reading,” she clarifies. He considers, however, that this work is the one of return, “I have reunited with the figure that I want to be as a director,” he maintains. After blockbusters like Jurassic World and The Lord of the Rings, these projects have allowed him to tackle a much more personal project, which also emerged as a reaction to those mammoth montages.
The Oscars party allows survivors to gather in Los Angeles. Bayona appreciates having broken the wall of silence that existed between those who survived that plane crash in the Andes in 1972 and the relatives of the deceased. “This may all go beyond the cinematic,” she says.
A few interviews with radio and television await Bayona. Once the meeting is over, David Martí takes a photo with the David Martí of 2007, when he still had hair.
