Juan Antonio Bayona has an extensive career in the national and international audiovisual sector, recognised by the highest film institutions with various nominations and awards. His most recent feature film, Society of the Snow, received nominations for best international film and best make-up and hairstyling in the last edition of the Oscars.

The medal has been awarded in recognition of the author’s work to consolidate his own voice, whether delving into fantastic universes or portraying stories and characters whose everyday lives are turned upside down, meaning they face extreme situations.

Bayona graduated in the first wave of students from the Film and Audiovisual School of Catalonia (ESCAC). After his studies, he started off in the audiovisual world by directing advertising campaigns and video clips by different artists, such as Raphael, Fangoria, OBK, Hevia, Camela, Alejandro Sanz, Bunbury and the British group Keane.

In 1999 he made the leap to cinema with the short film Les meves vacances, which was followed three years later by another short, L’home esponja, with Bayona as the producer. His big break came with the film The Orphanage (2007), co-produced with Guillermo del Toro, applauded in Cannes and nominated for thirteen Goyas, taking awards in seven categories including best new director.

The excellent reception this film received enabled him to make the leap to Hollywood, with projects such as the film adaptation of the novel Hater, by the English writer David Moody, also produced by Guillermo del Toro and starring Ben Gazzaro, along with the superproductions Jurassic World 2, which Steven Spielberg personally chose him for, and the series The Rings of Power.

The feature films A Monster Calls, starring Felicity Jones and Liam Neeson, The Impossible, with a cast headed by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, and the above-mentioned Society of the Snow, based on the book of the same name by Pablo Vierci, are other notable works in his filmography.

In its meeting of May 2024, the Full Council unanimously approved the awarding of the city’s Gold Medal for Cultural Merit to Juan Antonio Bayona.