# What is the best Penélope Cruz movie?

> Spanish Oscar winner, Almodóvar muse, Hollywood star — Penélope Cruz has tackled everything from erotic tragicomedy to mind-bending sci-fi to swashbuckling pirates. Which film showcases her at her absolute finest?

*By YPB Team · Published May 22, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-penelope-cruz-movie*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Volver**
   A haunting Pedro Almodóvar drama where Cruz plays a woman dealing with her husband's mysterious disappearance, earning her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination.
2. **Vicky Cristina Barcelona**
   Woody Allen's sun-soaked romance set in Spain where Cruz won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as a volatile, seductive ex-wife.
3. **All About My Mother**
   Pedro Almodóvar's masterpiece and Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, with Cruz in a pivotal role in this multigenerational family drama.
4. **Parallel Mothers**
   Almodóvar's 2021 drama about two women whose lives intertwine after childbirth, earning Cruz another Academy Award Best Actress nomination.
5. **Pain and Glory**
   A deeply personal 2019 Almodóvar film about a director confronting his past, nominated for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards.
6. **Open Your Eyes**
   Alejandro Amenábar's mind-bending 1997 psychological thriller that launched Cruz internationally and was later remade as Vanilla Sky.
7. **Broken Embraces**
   Almodóvar's 2009 stylish neo-noir romance featuring Cruz as a woman entangled in a dangerous and obsessive love affair.
8. **Blow**
   Ted Demme's 2001 crime drama about cocaine trafficker George Jung where Cruz delivers a memorable performance alongside Johnny Depp.
9. **Nine**
   Rob Marshall's 2009 musical drama based on Fellini's 8½, where Cruz earned an Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination.
10. **Vanilla Sky**
   Cameron Crowe's 2001 psychological thriller where Cruz stars alongside Tom Cruise in a complex, mind-bending narrative about reality and obsession.
11. **Ferrari**
   Michael Mann's 2023 acclaimed biopic where Cruz brings the compelling Laura Ferrari to life in this portrait of a pivotal year in the legendary car designer's life.
12. **Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides**
   The 2011 blockbuster where Cruz plays a seductive and dangerous rival to Captain Jack Sparrow in the high-seas adventure franchise.
13. **Jamón Jamón**
   Bigas Luna's 1992 erotic tragicomedy that launched Cruz's career, featuring her breakthrough performance that announced a major new Spanish talent.
14. **Live Flesh**
   Cruz's first collaboration with Almodóvar in 1997, a passionate romantic thriller about reconnection and past trauma in modern Madrid.

Tags: movies, spain, actors, penelope cruz