Asturias becomes Panem: The filming locations of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

Somiedo Natural Park is one of the most remote and visually spectacular landscapes in Spain — a place of deep glacial valleys, dense forests, mountain pastures, traditional stone huts, and lakes of extraordinary clarity. It is home to one of Europe's last wild brown bear populations. The nearest city, Oviedo, is more than an hour away. Getting equipment and crew in required planning every vehicle movement through narrow mountain valleys with almost no room for error.

Filming in Somiedo appears to correspond to the Cornucopia scenes, while Teverga represents parts of the arena — a wild meadow within an endless forest, as described in the books. The Cornucopia was installed in a meadow along the path leading to Valle de Lago — one of Asturias' most spectacular glacial lakes — and appears clearly in the film's official trailer, with the Asturian mountains as a dramatic backdrop. 

Supervising location manager Pedro Aráez described the location's appeal directly: "Somiedo is a spectacular place. The valleys, forests and mountains have a very wild, untouched feeling, which was exactly what the filmmakers were looking for. It's remote, dramatic and visually unique. When you arrive there, you immediately understand why it was chosen."

Because it is a protected area, strict environmental rules applied throughout the shoot. The crew had to follow strict guidelines to avoid any environmental impact — altering the landscape, disturbing wildlife or leaving traces of production was strictly forbidden. All filming and occupancy permits in protected areas were managed by the production in record time, with compliance with fire prevention regulations a particular priority during the high-risk summer months.

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The beech forest of Montegrande in Teverga — a neighbouring municipality to Somiedo, near the Puerto de Ventana mountain pass — provided the film's deep forest sequences. A dedicated filming set was installed here during the summer, with approximately twenty minutes of footage planned to recreate the Arena. 

The glacial lake complex of Saliencia — declared a Natural Monument — was chosen for its extreme beauty and wild character. The final scenes filmed in Asturias were shot specifically in the Lago de la Cueva area, making use of the surroundings of a nearby former iron mine. 

Filming also extended slightly south across the regional border into Castile and León, at Piedrafita de Babia — a small mountain municipality in the Babia region.

Not all the action was in the wilderness. Production reserved spaces in the Oviedo Congress and Exhibitions Center, in the Calatrava building — the striking white structure designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava that sits on the edge of the Asturian capital. Its futuristic, bone-white architecture provided an imposing Capitol-era building without any additional set dressing.

Principal photography wrapped at Studio Babelsberg just outside Berlin on November 28, 2025 — one of the largest and most historic film studios in Europe. Interior scenes, controlled environment sequences, and the studio-bound material that Asturias could not provide were completed here. By November, Elle Fanning and Glenn Close had both concluded filming their scenes.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping opens in cinemas November 20, 2026.