23 Best Spanish Movies on Amazon Prime (September 2019)

1. Cartas a Elena (2012)

Sweet and sentimental story set in Chihuahua’s beautiful Copper Canyon. Young Emilio and his adoptive father deliver mail as well as read and write letters for the illiterate villagers. Emilio feels saddened by the difficult news sent by relatives working north of the border and begins inventing happy letters for his customers.

Accent: Mexican

2. Chico & Rita (2012)

Animated tale set in 1948 that celebrates the music and culture of Cuba with an epic story of love, passion, and heartbreak. Features the music of (and animated cameos by) Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Tito Puente, Chano Pozo, and others.

Accent: Cuban

3. El Crimen del Padre Amaro (2002)

Politics and sexual passions threaten to corrupt a young, newly-ordained priest in a small Mexican town. This film starring Gael García Bernal and Ana Claudia Talancón was a huge success in its native Mexico and a commercial success in the United States. Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Note: Unfortunately, this film seems to come and go frequently from free Prime streaming, so if you don’t find it available, maybe try adding it to your watchlist and checking back later.

Accent: Mexican

4. América (2011)

When her abusive boyfriend takes away her daughter, América escapes from her idyllic Caribbean village in Puerto Rico to a new life in New York City. She works long hours as a nanny to raise money so that her daughter can make the journey and join her, but soon her troubled past hunts her down.

Accents: Puerto Rican, Mexican, Dominican, Colombian

5. Camila (1984)

This beautiful and tragic older film based on a true story received a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination.

In 1840s Buenos Aires, Argentina, a beautiful young socialite named Camila falls in love with Ladislao, a Jesuit priest. After several failed attempts at fighting his own feelings, Camila and the priest embark on an ill-fated torrid affair. The ending is haunting.

The film’s themes of political oppression and censorship resonated with Argentinian audiences, since the country’s brutal right-wing dictatorship had only ended a year before its release.

Accent: Argentinian

6. Sólo Química (2016)

Fun and light rom-com from Spain. Nineteen year old Oli falls for her TV idol and embarks on a Cinderella-like romance filled with luxury, fame, success and money. It seems she has found her fairy tale ending, until she learns good chemistry and true love are not one and the same.

Accent: European Spanish

7. El Violín (2005)

Haunting, beautifully filmed drama about the struggle between the peasants and military in 1970s-era Mexico. Warning: begins with a few minutes of graphic scenes of violence. However, the moving story of heroic defiance that follows makes up for these short scenes.

Accent: Mexican

8. Pelo Malo (2013)

In much of Latin America, curly Afro-textured hair is referred to as pelo malo, or bad hair. In this heart-rending coming-of-age film set in the slums of Caracas, a nine-year-old boy’s obsession with straightening his hair and becoming a pop singer elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his mother.

Accent: Venezuelan

9. El Abrazo de la Serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent) (2016)

Through parallel story threads set 30 years apart, this absorbing odyssey follows two Western scientists who travel deep into the Amazon jungle looking for a rare plant that possesses healing powers, with an enigmatic shaman as their guide.

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2016.

Incredibly, the film includes dialogue in nine languages: Cubeo, Huitoto, Ticuna, Wanano, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Catalan, and English, so it might not be the best choice if your only objective is to improve your Spanish. This hypnotic film is highly recommended though for those interested in Amazonian cultures.

Accents: Colombian, European Spanish

10. El Baño del Papa (The Pope’s Toilet) (2007)

This award-winning comedy portrays the story of John Paul II’s visit to a small Uruguayan town in 1988. 50,000 people are expected and the locals believe selling food and local wares will make them rich, but petty smuggler Beto has a better idea — to build a toilet.

Accent: Uruguayan

11. Chavela (2017)

Powerful and poignant portrait of beloved singer Chavela Vargas, whose passionate renditions of popular ranchera songs made her a beloved figure in Mexico, even as her androgynous appearance and unconventional life challenged norms of the day. After disappearing from the public eye for decades, Chavela makes a triumphant return to the stage, earning her a new level of fame late in life.

Accent: Mexican

12. Ma Ma (2016)

This old-fashioned tear-jerker stars Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz as Magda, a woman determined to live life to the fullest in the face of her recent breast cancer diagnosis.

Accent: European Spanish

13. El Dedo (2014)

After years of dictatorship, a remote village formally becomes a town with the birth of its 501st inhabitant, creating an opening for the position of mayor. Based on a true story, this whimsical comedy celebrates democracy while gently poking fun at village life.

Thanks to travel and pet writer Tina of 21 Pup Street for recommending this one!

Accent: Argentinian

14. Alamar (2009)

Beautiful but slow-moving docufilm about a boy about to move to Rome with his Italian mother who embarks on a final epic voyage to the gorgeous Mexican coast with his native father. Note: Not a lot of dialogue to practice your Spanish; more of a poetic meditation on the simple rhythms of life of these Mexican fishermen.

Accent: Mexican

15. Sueño en Otro Idioma (I Dream in Another Language) (2017)

Haunting and poetic film about the last two speakers of an indigenous language, who had a quarrel in the past and haven’t spoken to each other in over 50 years. Martín, a young linguist, undertakes the challenge of bringing the old friends back together and convincing them to speak once again to save the language from extinction.

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award.

Accent: Mexican. Some dialogue in Zikril, a fictional indigenous language created for the film.

16. La Buena Vida (2015)

Beautiful, tragic documentary set in the village of Tamaquito, deep in the forests of Colombia. Here, nature provides the people with everything they need. But the Wayúu community’s way of life is being destroyed by the vast and rapidly growing El Cerrejón coal mine. Determined to save his community from forced resettlement, leader Jairo Fuentes negotiates with the mine’s operators in what soon becomes a fight for survival.

Accent: Colombian. Some dialogue in the Wayúu language.

17. How to be a Latin Lover (2017)

Cute comedy featuring the hilarious Eugenio Derbez that also has its touching moments. Dialogue is a mix of both Spanish and English.

Accent: Mexican

18. La Distancia Más Larga (The Longest Distance) (2014)

Beautiful and touching film that tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who travels to the country to meet his grandmother and rebuild family ties. Little does he know this will be the grandmother’s last journey as she is ill and wants to die in Mount Roraima, the place where she once was happy.

This award-winning Venezuelan/Spanish co-production contrasts the chaos and violence of Caracas with the natural paradise of Venezuela’s Gran Sabana region.

Accents: Venezuelan, European Spanish

19. Narco Cultura (2012)

This gripping documentary contrasts the harrowing reality of bloodstained Juárez, Mexico with the unsettling glorification of murderous drug traffickers in popular narcocorrido ballads. Most interviews are in Spanish.

Accent: Mexican

20. Return to Cuba (2016)

After 18 years in Italy, Barbara Ramos returns to live in Cuba. Shot over a period of three years, this documentary chronicles her life after the Fidel Castro era, in the wake of liberal reforms and reconciliation with the US. Joyful, heartwarming film.

Accent: Cuban

21. Wakolda (The German Doctor) (2014)

Chilling Argentine drama directed, produced, and written by Lucía Puenzo based on her own novel Wakolda.

Patagonia, 1960. A German doctor meets an Argentinean family and follows them on a long desert road to a small town where the family will be starting a new life.

In this fictionalized account, the doctor turns out to be Nazi SS officer and physician Josef Mengele, infamous for performing human experiments in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The family welcome the doctor into their home and entrust their young daughter to his care, not knowing that they are harboring one of the most dangerous criminals in the world.

Accent: Argentinian. Some dialogue in German.

22. La Luciérnaga (The Firefly) (2013)

Touching story of love and loss set in Colombia. After her estranged brother’s sudden death, Lucia bonds with his fiancée and finds herself falling in love.

Accent: Colombian

23. Desastres Naturales (2015)

Whimsical story of Raquel, a teacher who refuses to accept the idea of retiring and arrives at her classroom to discover she has been replaced with a much younger teacher. Raquel rejects this idea and proceeds with her lecture. The students occupy a classroom and rally behind their former teacher with a small revolt that threatens the establishment order.

Accent: Chilean