27 Best Spanish Movies on Netflix (2023)

1. Todos lo saben (Everybody Knows)

Kidnapping thriller by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, and Ricardo Darín.

Laura, a Spanish woman living in Buenos Aires, returns with her two children to her hometown outside Madrid for her sister’s wedding. However, the joyful reunion soon turns tragic when her daughter gets kidnapped, revealing a dark web of hidden secrets.

Accents: European Spanish, Argentinian

2. I’m No Longer Here (Ya no estoy aquí)

Gorgeous, touching tale of a teen immigrant from Monterrey, Mexico.

In 2011, 17-year-old Ulises leads a gang called Los Terkos dedicated to the Kolombia or Cholombiano subculture. This lifestyle consists of dancing and listening to cumbia rebajada, a slowed-down version of Colombian cumbia. Los Terkos dress in bright, baggy clothes and sport homemade, eccentric hairdos.

After a misunderstanding with a local cartel, Ulises flees to the immigrant community of Jackson Heights, Queens to save his life.

This absorbing story is told in flashbacks. The nonprofessional actors bring great authenticity to the dialogue as well as the dance scenes.

Stick around for the end of the credits for behind-the-scenes footage of the young actors.

Some slang you’ll hear:

• sobres – Northern Mexican slang for “OK” or “Right on!”
• al chile – Mexican slang for “for real” or “seriously”
• morro(a) – Northern Mexican slang for “kid” or “dude.” Está morro means someone is young.

Accent: Mexican

3. Plaza Catedral

Engrossing social drama set in Panama City.

Alicia (compellingly portrayed by Mexican actress Ilse Salas), who has withdrawn from society after the death of her young son, finds her isolated existence challenged by a teenage street thug in trouble.

Accents: Panamanian, Mexican

4. El suplente (The Substitute)

Tense Argentinian drama.

Lucio, a highbrow literature professor, returns to his old neighborhood in an underserved area of Buenos Aires to substitute teach high school. He struggles to connect with his students, who have far tougher things than homework to worry about.

When one of his students is seriously threatened by a local druglord, Lucio tries to save him and is drawn into a dangerous world.

Accent: Argentinian

5. Quien a hierro mata (Eye for an Eye)

^{No English subtitles available on YouTube. Watch subtitled trailer on Netflix.}

In this tense Spanish thriller, a cartel boss is released from prison due to illness, not realizing that the nurse in charge of his care plans to take revenge.

The Spanish title comes from the saying Quien a hierro mata, a hierro muere (“Who lives by the sword, dies by the sword”).

Accent: European Spanish

6. El hoyo (The Platform)

Those will strong stomachs and a taste for satire will enjoy Netflix’s viral thriller. The claustrophobic premise is an apt metaphor in these days of shelter-in-place.

Inside a vertical prison, inmates are assigned to a level and forced to ration food from a platform that moves between the floors. This dystopian Spanish horror film is a twisted social allegory about mankind at its darkest and hungriest.

Accent: European Spanish

7. Vivir dos veces (Live Twice, Love Once)

^{Note: No English subtitles available for YouTube trailer. Click to watch subtitled trailer on Netflix.}

Wistful, heartwarming Spanish comedy.

Emilio, a retired math professor in Valencia, is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He and his daughter and granddaughter embark on a quixotic quest to reunite him with his childhood crush before his memory loss is complete.

Accent: European Spanish. Some dialogue in Catalan.

8. Roma

This Oscar-winning Netflix epic directed by Alfonso Cuarón delivers a vivid, emotional portrait of domestic life and social hierarchy set against Mexico’s political turmoil of the 1970s.

Accent: Mexican. Some dialogue in Mixtec, an indigenous language from Oaxaca.

9. Durante la tormenta (Mirage)

^{Note: No English subtitles available for YouTube trailer. Click to watch subtitled trailer on Netflix.}

Spanish thriller from the director of Contratiempo starring the talented Adriana Ugarte. A space-time continuum glitch allows Vera to save a boy’s life 25 years earlier, but results in the loss of her daughter, whom she fights to get back.

Accent: European Spanish

10. Soltera Codiciada (How to Get Over a Breakup)

A heartbroken ad copywriter living in Lima, Peru, is inspired to write a blog about life as a single woman and is surprised by her website’s success.

Light comedy based on the real-life blog Soltera Codiciada by Peruvian writer María José Osorio.

Accent: Peruvian

11. El Hijo (The Son)

^{Note: No English subtitles available for YouTube trailer. Click to watch subtitled trailer on Netflix.}

In this creepy psychological thriller set in Buenos Aires, painter Lorenzo’s life spirals out of control as he fears his wife is trying to isolate him from their infant son.

Based on a novel by Argentinian writer Guillermo Martínez.

Accent: Argentinian. Some limited dialogue in Norwegian.

12. Carteristas (Pickpockets)

^{No English subtitles available for YouTube trailer – click to watch trailer on Netflix}

Predictable but entertaining Netflix original film that follows three teen thieves learning what it takes to be successful pickpockets on the streets of Bogotá from a master in the art of deception.

Stunning location shots of Colombia’s capital, especially its amazing street art.

Accents: Colombian, European Spanish

13. Nuestros Amantes (Our Lovers)

Charming, creative rom-com with clever dialogue.

A love-challenged man and a woman he meets at a coffee shop begin dating, but only at the shop — and without knowing anything about each other.

Accent: European Spanish

14. 100 Metros

Moving film based on the incredible true story of a Spanish man in his 30s diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and told that within a year he would not be able to walk 100 meters.

To prove his naysayers wrong, he decides to train for the world’s most challenging endurance event, an Ironman Triathlon, assisted by his delightfully cantankerous father-in-law.

Accent: European Spanish

15. También la Lluvia (Even the Rain)

This Spanish film stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal as a director who travels to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting Christopher Columbus’s conquest.

The crew find themselves facing a moral crisis as the Bolivian film extras violently protest the privatization of their water supply, paralleling the Spanish exploitation of the New World.

Accents: European Spanish, Bolivian, Mexican

16. Verónica

Horror fans should check out this much-hyped film by Spanish director Paco Plaza, director of the terrifying [REC] series.

Verónica is a Ouija-based horror movie loosely based on true events. It follows Verónica, a teenage girl who holds a séance with her classmates, unwittingly unleashing an evil force that terrorizes her and her family.

Accent: European Spanish

17. Adú

^{No English subtitles available for YouTube trailer – click to watch trailer on Netflix}

Three interlocking tales set in North Africa starring veteran Spanish actor Luis Tosar.

In a desperate attempt to reach Europe, six-year-old Adú and his older sister in Cameroon try to sneak into an aircraft hold. Not far away, an environmental activist witnesses the terrible scene of an elephant killed by poachers.

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers to the north in Spanish Melilla, a group of civil guards faces a furious mob of African immigrants trying to cross the border fence.

Accent: European Spanish

18. 7 Años

This cerebral drama is Netflix’s first original film in Spanish.

Four friends make the gut-wrenching decision of who will go to prison for the crime they committed. A character play set in a single room, with terrific dialogue and performances.

Accent: European Spanish

19. Fe De Etarras (Bomb Scared)

Netflix’s second Spanish-language movie is a controversial dark comedy about a dysfunctional group of wannabe Basque terrorists awaiting word about a new mission while Spain makes a run at the World Cup title.

Most of the cast are big names in Spain but relatively unknown in the US. Best for those an interest in recent Spanish history and the Basque conflict.

Accent: European Spanish

20. La Llamada (Holy Camp)

Popular Spanish film adaptation of a cult musical comedy.

Two rebellious teen girls who love reggaeton music have a life-changing brush with the divine at a camp run by nuns. Very funny and relatable despite the unlikely plot.

Accent: European Spanish

21. El Faro de las Orcas (The Lighthouse of the Orcas)

Moving film shot in a remote area of Argentine Patagonia.

A Spanish mother travels to the ends of the earth with her autistic son in the hope that a ranger and a pod of wild orcas can help him find an emotional connection.

Accents: Argentinian, European Spanish

22. Thi Mai, Rumbo a Vietnam

In this heartwarming comic drama, a determined mother travels to Vietnam along with her two friends to bring home the baby her recently deceased daughter had planned to adopt.

Accent: European Spanish

23. Toc Toc

In the mood for a silly comedy? This zany film based on a hit play follows a group of patients with OCD who wait for their flight-delayed doctor to arrive for their appointments, forcing them to endure each other’s oddball quirks

Accent: European Spanish

24. La Hora Final (The Last Hour)

In this compelling true story set in 1992, two Peruvian detectives go undercover to locate and capture the elusive leader of the Shining Path.

Accent: Peruvian

25. La noche de 12 años (A Twelve-Year Night)

Harrowing survival drama based on the real-life story of future Uruguayan president José Mujica and his fellow Tupamaro political prisoners, who fight to survive 12 years of solitary confinement and torture.

Accent: Uruguayan

26. Toro

An ex-con who has left his life of crime behind is dragged into conflict with the local mafia when his family is threatened.

Entertainingly frenetic thriller atmospherically set on Spain’s southern coast.

Accent: European Spanish

27. El silencio de otros (The Silence of Others)

This powerful documentary captures the struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under the fascist general Francisco Franco, many of whom continue to seek justice.

Filmed over six years, it follows survivors — a man who passes his former torturer’s home every day, children of disappeared parents later found in mass graves, parents still searching for children seized at birth and handed to Franco’s allies — as they organize the groundbreaking Argentine Lawsuit to fight a state-imposed amnesia of crimes against humanity.

Accents: European Spanish, Argentinian

^{Banner image from Perdiendo el Norte © Atresmedia Cine}

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