Beyond Society will premiere globally on Netflix on December 18, 2026. The three-episode documentary series continues the story after the rescue of the survivors of Flight 571, shifting attention to the people who returned home and the families of those who did not.
Netflix has also released the first official teaser and confirmed a world premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The project is connected to Society of the Snow through co-creator and producer J.A. Bayona, but it is a non-fiction series rather than a dramatized sequel.
When is the Beyond Society Netflix release date?
The confirmed release date is Friday, December 18. Netflix says the series will premiere globally, making this a worldwide platform date rather than a schedule limited to Spain.
The announcement does not give an exact release hour for individual regions. It also does not describe a weekly rollout, so the safest current description is a December 18 global premiere for a three-episode series. Episode titles and individual runtimes have not been published.
What is Beyond Society about?
The documentary begins where the physical survival story ends. It follows what happened when the survivors came back from the Andes, returned to their neighborhood, and encountered the relatives of friends and family members who had died. Netflix frames that return as the beginning of another difficult chapter rather than a simple conclusion.
Across three episodes, the series looks at the fifty years after the tragedy and at the community formed around it. The focus includes grief, silence, public attention, and the repeated retelling of the story through books, films, and documentaries.
That perspective gives the series a different job from a reconstruction of the crash. It is designed around memory and aftermath: how survivors lived with their choices, how bereaved families carried their losses, and how both groups responded as the event became a global cultural story.
How does it connect to Society of the Snow?
Netflix says Beyond Society picks up where Society of the Snow leaves off. That connection is thematic and creative. Bayona directed the 2023 feature and co-created this documentary series with Carlos Torres, while Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza return as producers alongside him.
The original announcement traces the idea to a trip to the Valley of Tears with members of the Society of the Snow cast. The journey brought the actors to the crash site and placed the film’s reconstruction beside the memories of the people whose experiences inspired it.
Netflix notes that Society of the Snow won twelve Goya Awards, received two Academy Award nominations, and earned the audience award in San Sebastián’s Perlak section in 2023. Beyond Society builds on that public interest without presenting its interviews as additional scripted scenes.
Who appears in the documentary series?
The confirmed participants include survivors of the accident and relatives of people who did not return. Netflix says those perspectives are brought together in one work, giving both sides of the post-rescue community a place in the account.
The series also includes Piers Paul Read, author of Alive, and Pablo Vierci, author of Society of the Snow. Filmmakers who adapted the story for cinema appear as well, including Alive producer Frank Marshall and Bayona.
Netflix has not published a complete participant list or an episode-by-episode breakdown. The named writers and filmmakers are confirmed contributors, but the official materials do not establish how long each person appears or which testimony belongs to which episode.
Who created and directed Beyond Society?
J.A. Bayona and Carlos Torres created the series, and Carlos Torres directs. Bayona, Sandra Hermida, and Belén Atienza are the announced producers.
Netflix identifies the project as a Spanish production and a documentary series. The current announcements do not provide a complete department list, episode-specific writing credits, a composer, or separate directors for individual installments, so those credits remain open rather than inferred.
What is the San Sebastián premiere plan?
Beyond Society will have its world premiere in the festival’s Official Selection as a special screening outside competition. That distinction matters: inclusion in Official Selection does not make the series a competitor for the main awards.
The festival’s official listing identifies Spain as the country of origin and gives 153 minutes for the presentation. Because Netflix describes the work as three episodes, that number is best treated as the listed total festival presentation rather than three separately confirmed episode runtimes.
The 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival runs from September 18 through September 26, 2026. The sources reviewed here do not yet establish a precise public screening time for Beyond Society, so viewers should rely on the festival program for that detail when it appears.
What does the first teaser reveal — and what remains unconfirmed?
The official teaser mixes present-day interviews with family and media archive material, images tied to earlier screen versions, and the documentary team’s return to the Andes. Its emphasis is the emotional life after survival: the gap between a public image of heroism and the private weight carried by survivors and bereaved families.
- Episode details: three episodes are confirmed, but titles, individual runtimes, and a weekly schedule are not.
- Release time: December 18 is global, but Netflix has not published one exact launch hour for every region.
- Full contributor list: the announcement names several writers and filmmakers but not every survivor or family member who appears.
The Beyond Society series page keeps the confirmed release date, participants, festival status, and future updates together. The Pixel Twelve TV hub tracks other current documentary and streaming announcements.
