In a matter of hours this Wednesday, they will fly to Los Angeles for the Oscars with suitcases filled with prosthetic legs, casts, scars, and wigs. Catalan makeup artists Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé are nominated for best makeup and hairstyling for Snow Community, theJA Bayona project. While they acknowledge stiff competition this year, they spoke with this outlet about their excitement for the work ahead.
The film recounts the 1972 Andes plane crash, where a flight from Montevideo to Santiago de Chile collided with the mountain range. The makeup crew and the visual effects team faced the challenge of recreating the disaster on screen, including prosthetics and realistic wound effects to depict the deceased and the survival ordeal. Some scenes were so intense that decisions were made about what to show on screen.
Yet the gravity of the event meant certain footage never reached the Netflix film. “We know this is a delicate topic,” says David Martí, a makeup artist and founder of DDT SFX Studio in Barcelona. “Jota [J. A. Bayona] wanted to capture every detail, but much of it ended up on the cutting room floor.” He notes that certain pieces were removed out of respect for the families and because they weren’t strictly necessary. To preserve options, Bayona still shot the material. “It was an emotional project, but there was no need to linger on the more distressing details,” Martí explains. Bayona aimed to convey the events with precision while avoiding melodrama. We understand what happened in the tragedy.
The team recalls a similar balance during the production of The Impossible, where they collaborated with Bayona. “The image of the hole in María Belón’s leg appears in only one shot, yet it shapes the audience’s perception of the entire sequence,” the makeup lead says. They created up to 200 prosthetics for this character, one for each day of production, and only removed them gradually. “We worked to honor the survivors and tell the story with respect, while keeping the filmmaking essential,” Martí adds. Bayona’s approach was to remove excess detail and let the core events speak for themselves. We know what happened in the disaster and how it impacted those involved.
brutal facts
Snow Community earned widespread acclaim, winning 12 Goya Awards and becoming the second most-watched non-English language film on Netflix. For the makeup team, the survivors’ perspective carries the most weight. “They showed us a lot of respect, and they felt portrayed with authenticity and gratitude,” says López-Puigcerver. Even Roberto Canessa, the doctor who endured the crash, congratulated the team on the wound work.
Montse Ribé, a DDT SFX Studio makeup artist, reflects on the responsibility of depicting real events. “We were conscious that real people lived these events,” she says. “As I examined the wounds, I could hardly believe this happened, and some survivors were visibly affected by the memories. It was a heavy task, and presenting it with the respect Bayona demanded felt right,” she adds. The team’s commitment showed in every prosthetic and layer of makeup.
chronological shot
The filming spanned a year and faced early hurdles from January to April 2022. Shooting took place in rugged mountain conditions, with snow and freezing temperatures high in the Sierra Nevada at roughly 2,800 meters. “We had a large crew, but not everyone could trek up the mountain,” Ribé explains. Access challenges meant fewer coaches could accompany the cast, and more actors on set complicated makeup retouching. The team adapted and pressed on.
Filming followed a chronological arc over 141 days, capturing the gradual physical changes of the characters as time passed. Weight loss and the growth of hair and beards were depicted to reflect the escalating ordeal. Not all performers changed at the same pace, so makeup and prosthetics were tailored to emphasize each person’s experience and moment in the story.
The hair department faced its own test. Wigs recreated 1970s cuts and styles, while periodic touch-ups ensured hair growth remained believable across weeks of shooting. Belén López-Puigcerver, head of hairdressing, highlights the challenge of maintaining continuity as the narrative progressed.
Difficulty returning to start
After leaving Granada, the crew traveled to Chile and Uruguay to film airport scenes that bookend the journey. They aimed to maintain continuity across locations, so survivors’ appearances remained consistent as the story moved from Sierra Nevada to South America. “We kept continuity across the shots to preserve verisimilitude, even when performers gained weight after the initial rescue,” López-Puigcerver notes.
Pre-crash sequences and flashbacks were shot during the summer in Uruguay, as families bid farewell in anticipation of the tragedy. The team paused filming again and resumed before Christmas to recreate the crash at Netflix studios. “From August in Uruguay to November in Madrid, the continuity had to be exact,” the makeup expert says.
Communication with survivors
Extensive preproduction work involved direct liaison with survivors and their families. The director shared information and conducted personal investigations while the makeup team consulted survivors for guidance. “They told us stories, and we sent sketches of the bodies to show possible injuries,” López-Puigcerver explains.
The visual effects team prepared an initial study of the events, focusing on how things went wrong and aiming to stay faithful to what happened. The Oscar nominees recognize that film is a representation; everyone remembers events differently and not every detail aligns with lived experiences. Yet they pursued authenticity in a respectful, careful manner.
fan phenomenon
Martí and Ribé have previously earned Emmy recognition for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and have collaborated with Bayona on The Orphanage, The Impossible, and A Monster Comes to See Me. They were confident Snow Community could succeed and even felt it could equal or surpass their earlier work. The team members acknowledge that fan interest sometimes goes beyond the film itself. People researched the incident, studied documentaries, read books, and watched the movie repeatedly. For López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver, Martí, and Ribé, public support stands as the highest form of acknowledgment for their craft.