# What is the best Penélope Cruz role of all time?

> Across two continents and three languages, she's played desperate mothers, passionate lovers, and volatile geniuses — often for the same director. Which Almodóvar collaboration reigns, or does Hollywood get its due?

*By YPB Team · Published April 10, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-penelope-cruz-role-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Jamón, Jamón**
   A 1992 Spanish erotic drama where Cruz plays Silvia, a young woman caught in a love triangle in rural Spain.
2. **Belle Époque**
   A 1992 Oscar-winning Spanish comedy where Cruz plays Luz, one of four daughters who fall for a young deserter in 1930s Spain.
3. **Open Your Eyes**
   A 1997 Spanish sci-fi thriller where Cruz plays Sofía, the love interest at the center of a man's unraveling reality.
4. **All About My Mother**
   A 1999 Pedro Almodóvar drama where Cruz plays Sister Rosa, a young nun living in Barcelona who becomes entangled in a story of loss and resilience.
5. **Vanilla Sky**
   A 2001 sci-fi romance where Cruz plays Sofia Serrano, the woman at the center of a billionaire's increasingly surreal love story.
6. **Blow**
   A 2001 crime drama where Cruz plays Mirtha Jung, the volatile wife of cocaine smuggler George Jung.
7. **Volver**
   A 2006 Pedro Almodóvar drama where Cruz plays Raimunda, a working-class mother in Madrid who must confront her troubled past when her dead mother appears.
8. **Vicky Cristina Barcelona**
   A 2008 Woody Allen romantic drama where Cruz plays María Elena, the volatile ex-wife of a passionate Spanish artist, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
9. **Broken Embraces**
   A 2009 Pedro Almodóvar neo-noir where Cruz plays Lena, an actress whose affair with a director spirals into danger.
10. **Nine**
   A 2009 musical drama where Cruz plays Carla, the passionate mistress of a struggling Italian film director.
11. **Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides**
   A 2011 blockbuster where Cruz plays Angelica, a pirate and Jack Sparrow's former love interest searching for the Fountain of Youth.
12. **Pain and Glory**
   A 2019 Pedro Almodóvar autobiographical drama where Cruz plays Jacinta, the mother of a filmmaker reflecting on his life.
13. **Parallel Mothers**
   A 2021 Pedro Almodóvar drama where Cruz plays Janis, a photographer whose life becomes intertwined with a teenage mother after they share a hospital room.

Tags: movies, actors, performances, penélope cruz