In this day and age, you can’t call yourself a cinephile if you only watch English-language movies. Don’t get me wrong—they’re great!—but there’s so much more to explore. Why limit yourself to local titles when storytelling expands well beyond the confines of Hollywood? South Korean director Bong Joon-ho won Best Picture at the Academy Awards for Parasite, people, if we need to remind you.
If you want to try something new, Netflix has you covered. The streamer's roster includes a plethora of Spanish-language films that are beautiful, tragic, haunting, and hilarious. To make the selection process easier, we’ve rounded up a list of films that are well worth a watch. The group includes standouts such as JAULA, Seventeen, and Roma. So level up your film IQ, folks—these are the 15 best Spanish-language films on Netflix. Happy streaming.
Through My Window
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Through My Window is a tale of love and obsession. When Raquel becomes enamored with her neighbor, Ares, she finds herself constantly peering through his window. Some may call it stalking, but to her, it’s just pre-girlfriend research. If you think you know how this ends, think again.
JAULA / The Chalk Line
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JAULA is a chilling thriller that’s loosely based on a true-crime story. The film follows a couple who takes in an abandoned child. When the kid begins behaving strangely, they dig into her past and discover a horrifying secret.
Bird Box Barcelona
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Bird Box Barcelona is inspired by (you guessed it!), Bird Box. This iteration takes place in Spain. After an unknown creature begins killing people, a man named Sebastian is forced to find his way to safety.
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Seventeen
In this poignant Netflix original film, a seventeen-year-old breaks out of a juvenile detention center in search of his therapy dog. His journey through the luscious landscapes of Cantabria leads him find more than he was seeking, including a reconnection with his brother and grandmother.
Amar
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You never forget your first love. Amar explores the reality of this oft-said truism, tracing the intense, overwhelming cycle of love and heartbreak between young Carlos and Laura.
The Silence of Others
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Filmed over the course of six years, this 2020 Emmy winner for Best Documentary powerfully captures the epic struggle of Spanish citizens who lived under the forty-year dictatorship of General Franco, making for a stirring testament to Spain’s national pain.
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Roma
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Inspired by the childhood of writer and director Alfonso Cuarón, Roma is a gorgeous black-and-white telling of one young woman’s life as a live-in maid in Colonia Roma, Mexico City. Touching, devastating, and deeply personal, the film also nabbed a top honor at the Oscars.
Pan’s Labyrinth
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An essential watch for any Guillermo del Toro fans, Pan’s Labyrinth tells the tale of one young girl’s journey into a dark, twisted Alice in Wonderland-esque fantastical realm set against aa war torn 1944 Spain.
Verónica
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Loosely based on true events, this supernatural horror film follows the perils of a young girl in Madrid when the aftermath of a seance she hosted at school follows her home.
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Quién te cantará
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When a beloved singer experiences memory loss, it is up to her super fan to remind her who she is.
The Platform
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Heavily metaphorical, The Platform illustrates a prison system in which inmates reside in a vertical tower and are reassigned a room every month. Their food source operates on a platform, which stops at each floor beginning at the top and then descends down with whatever is left. As scarcity and starvation ensues, it soon becomes apparent that those at the bottom will rise.
The Distinguished Citizen
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A Nobel-prize winning expat returns to his homeland in Argentina after decades of writing about it from a distance.
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Time Share
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Two fathers must join forces to rescue their families after realizing that the American timeshare they have entered has evil lurking too close for comfort.
The Bar
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When a group of random bargoers unexpectedly witness a mysterious double-homicide, they are forced to remain inside of the crime scene. As they struggle for answers, paranoia rises, making an already tense situation nearly unbearable.
Even the Rain
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Two filmmakers arrive in Bolivia, intent on shooting a historical film about Christopher Columbus’s conquests. However, they find themselves amid a a whole other historical moment in action, as their production is met with unexpected obstacles from the ongoing Cochabamba Water War.
