30 Best Spanish Movies on Netflix (2021)

1. El Ciudadano Ilustre (The Distinguished Citizen)

Hilarious and moving tale of a famous Nobel Prize-winning author who returns to his backwater hometown in Argentina after many decades as an expat in Spain, with unexpected consequences.

Accents: Argentinian, European Spanish

2. Perdiendo el Norte (Off Course)

Cute and entertaining Spanish comedy about two overeducated and underemployed young Spaniards who move to Berlin to find professional jobs, but end up working in a Turkish cafe. Some hilarious moments of cultural misunderstanding.

Accent: European Spanish

3. El hoyo (The Platform)

Those will strong stomachs and a taste for satire will enjoy Netflix’s latest 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

4. 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.

5. Roma

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. Tarde Para la Ira (The Fury of a Patient Man)

This gritty, suspenseful revenge flick won four Goya awards. The tentative romance between a gentle Madrid laborer and a hard-working single mother becomes a struggle for survival when the woman’s violent boyfriend returns from prison.

Accent: European Spanish

10. Carteristas (Pickpockets)

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. El Otro Hermano (The Lost Brother)

Dark Uruguayan/Argentinian thriller.

While settling the affairs of his murdered mother and brother, a man partners with a local thug in a life insurance scam, putting him on a sinister path.

Accents: Uruguayan, Argentinian (Note: I am not savvy enough to be able to tell the difference between these)

14. 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

15. Palmeras en la Nieve (Palm Trees in the Snow)

Spectacular film that follows the journey of a young Spanish woman to her family’s plantation in Africa to uncover generations of family secrets.

Accent: European Spanish. Some dialogue in Aragonese, one of Spain’s minority languages.

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

18. El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth)

The film tells the story of young Ofelia, who meets a mythical faun who claims she is destined to become princess of the Underworld. But first she must carry out three perilous tasks. Some intense scenes of violence.

Accent: European Spanish

19. El guardián invisible (The Invisible Guardian)

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This Spanish thriller follows Inspector Amaia Salazar, who returns to her Navarre hometown to catch a killer targeting teens. There, Amaia must confront the origins of her nightmares as she unfolds the darkest secrets of the Baztan valley.

Based on the eponymous novel by Dolores Redondo.

Part 1 of the popular Baztan Trilogy. Parts 2 and 3 are Legado en los huesos (The Legacy of the Bones) and Ofrenda a la tormenta (Offering to the Storm).

Accent: European Spanish. Some dialogue in Basque.

20. 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

21. 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

24. 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

25. El Hombre de las Mil Caras (Smoke and Mirrors)

Complex Spanish thriller that takes the viewer on a whirlwind tour around the world. Based on the non-fiction book Paesa, el espía de las mil caras by Manuel Cerdán. The film stars Eduard Fernández as Francisco Paesa, a former agent of the Spanish secret service who faked his own death after an infamous corruption scandal.

Accent: European Spanish

26. Thi Mai, Rumbo a Vietnam

Accent: European Spanish

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

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

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