Sirāt & 10 More Acclaimed Spanish Language Films You Must See

As much as I love Oliver Laxe’s Sirāt, the film’s success slightly caught me off guard. First came a moment when I was shopping for Christmas presents and saw a whole rack of Blu-rays devoted to it, neatly arranged between Materialists and I Know What You Did Last Summer. 

Next came the announcement that the film had not only secured a nomination for Best Motion Picture - Non-English Language, but also for Best Original Score, placing the Berlin-based DJ Kanding Ray in a category with Hans Zimmer (F1), Alexandre Desplat (Frankenstein) and Ludwig Görenson (Sinners). Not bad. 

These events, of course, are more than welcome as the film is a one of a kind — and still my personal favourite of 2025. The story follows a father’s attempts to locate his daughter among the dust and sweat of an illegal rave scene, in and around Morocco’s dazzling Atlas Mountains — think Sorcerer meets Mad Max: Fury Road and you’ll have some idea of what awaits. Whether or not you’ve already seen it, however, there is naturally no shortage of great Spanish-language films available to watch at home. 

I’ve limited the following list — which I’ve arranged in no particular order — to one film per director, as we could easily be here all day. I’ve also tried to share the wealth between some different countries, but given the strength of the Spanish and Mexican film industries, the list is naturally quite skewed in their direction. 

Read on to learn more and use the guide below to find them on services like AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.  

1. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

If you’ve enjoyed the recently released Frankenstein on Netflix (or like any of Guilermo del Toro’s other work, like Shape of Water) and for some reason have yet to see Pan’s Labyrinth — a story set just after the Spanish Civil War about a young girl who escapes reality by discovering a wondrous but terrifying world — I think it’s still the director’s greatest masterpiece. 

The beloved Mexican director’s breakout hit won three Academy Awards (cinematography, art direction, and makeup) in 2007 (aka Scorsese’s Departed Oscars) but managed to lose the Foreign Language gong to The Lives of Others. What a year! 

2. El Mariachi (1992)

Something you will start to see a lot of in this list are early films by directors who went on to have great careers in Hollywood. El Mariachi is one of them: the film that Robert Rodriguez made for $6000 and invented his own myth (both in terms of the story and his rise as a filmmaker) in the process. The story itself is the stuff of classic B-movie Westerns, following a lone-gun guitar player who seeks to avenge his murdered family. 

El Mariachi would become known as the first instalment of the Mexico Trilogy, which later featured Desperado (in which Antonio Banderas stepped into the lead role) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, so if you like those films (or are even a fan of early Tarantino), you’ll definitely want to check this one out.

3. Y tu mamá también (2001)

Our third early classic from a now well-known director is Alfonso Cuarón’s Y tu mamá también. This is the one where two horny young guys take a road trip with an attractive older woman — so, if you’ve ever had a crush on Diego Luna (Andor) or Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) this one might just take your fancy. 

After the film’s release in 2001, where it basically became an instant cult classic, Cuarón directed three films in English (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, and Gravity) before returning to Mexico with his remarkable Spanish-language film, Roma. If you’re looking for a double bill, look no further. 

4. Volver (2006)

Given how Pedro Almodovar has pretty much continued to work in Spain (and in Spanish) for the majority of his career, it was tricky to know which of his celebrated movies to choose. We could easily have gone for his breakout hit, Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, his first Oscar winner, All About My Mother, or his more recent biographical work, Pain and Glory, but Volver just felt like a nice place to start.

Set in La Mancha, where Almodovar grew up, this is a beautiful melodrama about a family of six women (the Best Actress prize was famously shared between the six actresses at the Cannes Film Festival that year) that also features murder, a ghost, and betrayal — all the classic telenovela elements that continue to inspire the director’s work. 

5. The Orphanage (2007)

Before directing Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts in The Impossible, and later Chris Pratt in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, J.A. Bayona broke box office records in his native land with his debut feature The Orphanage, a gothic horror set in 1970s Spain. 

The story follows a woman who moves back into the orphanage where she grew up, hoping to turn it into a school — but of course, creepy stuff starts to happen. If you enjoy the supernatural horror of movies like The Lodge or The Others, you’ll definitely vibe with it. 

6. Amores Perros (2000)

Another early Spanish language classic by a now established director is Amores Perros. This is a movie that felt, upon release in 2000, like Mexico’s answer to Pulp Fiction — another story of crime and interweaving plotlines, although with a much darker tone than Tarantino’s movie. 

Perros was the debut of Alejandro González Iñárritu, a filmmaker who has gone on to win two Best Director Oscars for Birdman and The Revenant — so if you’re a fan of either of those you might want to see how the filmmaker made his name.

7. [Rec] (2007)

From an unheralded premier at the Venice Film Festival in 2007, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s [Rec] has gone on to become regarded as one of the defining movies of the found footage horror genre. If you tend to enjoy putting yourself through films like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project, you should definitely get onto this one.

The story takes place in a quarantined building, where a TV host and her cameraman discover — you guessed it — they’re not alone. 

8. Wild Tales (2014)

The only Argentinian film to make our list is Damián Szifron’s Wild Tales but it is the most financially successful Argentinian film in history, so there’s that. The movie is an outrageous anthology of six short stories, each one more darkly funny, violent and/or horny than the one before.

Wild Tales premiered in Cannes in 2014 and made it all the way to the Oscars, losing out on the Best Foreign Language award to Pawel Pawlikowski’s excellent Ida. For a good comp, imagine the genre anthology thrills of a film like V/H/S mixed with Almodovar’s (who also co-produced) sense of humour and you’ll have some idea.

9. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

If you’re in the mood for something a bit more classic, Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive is an overwhelmingly beautiful story about childhood and cinema that fans of Del Toro, in particular, will love. The director has often noted it as a major influence on Pan’s Labyrinth, and if you’re a fan of that great film, you’ll immediately see the similarities.

The story follows a girl in Franco-era Spain who watches a screening of James Whale’s Frankenstein at her local cinema and starts to believe that the creature is real. Director Victor Erice has only made two films since. Both are worth seeing, of course, but his 2023 comeback Close Your Eyes is a triumph, too.

10. No (2012)

In more recent years, the director Pablo Larrain has been making interesting portraits of famous women who were touched by tragedy — Jackie (starring Natalie Portman), Spencer (Kristen Stewart) and Maria (Angelina Jolie). His earlier work is also more than worth revisiting, especially this excellent political thriller from 2012.

No is set in 1988 and follows a young advertising executive who uses the methods of American marketing to try and help bring down the dictator Augustus Pinochet — who the Americans, of course, helped to put in place.