20 Best Spanish Movies That Will Make You Cry

Movies are one of the best ways we have to escape reality and dream for a couple of hours. However, not all films are made equal, and Hollywood movies are not like Spanish ones. 

Let’s face it, the best Spanish movies are those that grab your soul, take it through a roller coaster, and leave you with lots of questions and doubts about what you’ve just watched.

In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of watching movies in Spanish and discover the 20 best Spanish movies that will make you cry by exploring a diversity of themes such as love, immigration, violence, loss, and grief.

Watch the Best Spanish Movies and Learn Spanish

It’s been well established that watching movies in another language is a great way to incorporate it into your everyday life. With all the benefits of modern technology, learning Spanish by watching TV has never been so easy. 

Here at Homeschool Spanish Academy, we recommend this technique as just one more part of a full spectrum approach that includes a wide array of different methods to learn Spanish. Watching a movie won’t instantly solve your issue with those tricky conjugations, but it will definitely help you by exposing you to real-life Spanish spoken at its usual speed. 

20 Best Spanish Movies That Will Make You Cry

Spanish culture is one for big dramas. From the archetypal opera “Carmen” to modern telenovelas, something about the Latin soul brings emotions out in the open. Having made a list of some of the funniest Spanish comedies out there, now it’s time to explore the best Spanish movies that will make you cry. 

Remember that when we talk in this blog about the best Spanish movies (or anything else), we’re actually referring to the best Spanish language movies, including all films from Latin America and Spain.  

1. Todo Sobre Mi Madre

English Title: All About My Mother

Director: Pedro Almodovar

Year: 1999

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña, Penelope Cruz

Plot: Manuela is a nurse who works in the area of donor organ transplants in a hospital in Madrid. One day, her son dies in a car accident and she agrees that her son’s heart be transplanted into a man in another city. 

It’ll make you cry because: She travels with her son’s heart.  

Interesting Facts: Widely considered one of the best Spanish movies of all time, it won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. 

2. Roma

English Title: Roma

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Year: 2018

Spanish Accent: México

Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina

Plot: An aesthetic portrait of a middle class Mexican family from the ‘70s, seen through the eyes of Cleo, the domestic worker. 

It’ll make you cry because: Cleo’s life seems to be not important at all, but at the same time she’s the rock to which the whole family holds.  

Interesting Facts: Won three Oscars, but lost on Best Film. It’s based on Cuarón’s own childhood and is among the best Spanish movies available on Netflix.

3. Mar Adentro

English Title: The Sea Inside

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Year: 2004

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas 

Plot: Ramón can’t move, but still fights a 30-year campaign to win his right to die with dignity. He does that while showing the people around him the value of life itself.

It’ll make you cry because: Ramón wants to die, but society won’t even give him that.   

Interesting Facts: Based on the true story of Ramón Sampedro.

4. Camino

English Title: Camino

Director: Javier Fesser

Year: 2008

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Nerea Camacho, Carme Elías, Mariano Venancio 

Plot: Camino is a young girl full of life that falls in love for the first time, then gets sick with a deadly illness. Instead of getting all the help that modern medicine can provide, her family leaves her fate in the hands of God. 

It’ll make you cry because: A young, beautiful girl suffers too much.    

Interesting Facts: Based on the true story of Alexia González. Her family doesn’t accept the film’s version of the story and the Catholic church intends to canonize her. 

5. Amores Perros

English Title: Amores Perros

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Year: 2000

Spanish Accent: México

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Emilio Echevarría, Goya Toledo 

Plot: Three stories connected by a car accident explore the realities of life in a big Latin American city at the beginning of the 21st century. 

It’ll make you cry because: There are dog fights and a lot of betrayal.    

Interesting Facts: This movie launched the Hollywood careers of actor García Bernal and director González Iñárritu. 

6. El Hijo de la Novia

English Title: Son of the Bride

Director: Juan José Campanella

Year: 2001

Spanish Accent: Argentina

Cast: Ricardo Darín, Héctor Alterio, Norma Aleandro 

Plot: Rafael is a middle-aged man in crisis, but he wants to make his parents dream to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary come true. The only problem is that his mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and has to say “I do” by herself to make it happen.  

It’ll make you cry because: A mom with Alzheimer’s can’t see all the love she gets from her husband and son.

Interesting Facts: Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. 

7. El Hoyo

English Title: The Platform

Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia

Year: 2019

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Iván Massagué, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan

Plot: A man wakes up in a room with a hole in its center. Slowly discovers that he’s in a vertical prison with over 200 floors. The hole in the middle is for food that comes down on a platform every day.    

It’ll make you cry because: The prisoners in the lowest floors get no food at all. 

Interesting Facts: Frequently compared to Canadian cult-film “Cube.” One of the best Spanish movies currently streaming on Netflix. 

8. La Soledad

English Title: La Soledad

Director: Jaime Rosales

Year: 2007

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Sonia Almarcha, Petra Martínez, Miriam Correa 

Plot: Adela moves with her little son to Madrid and starts a new life. However, she will soon discover that life in the big city isn’t like in her village in the countryside.

It’ll make you cry because: It’s an honest and sometimes crude reflection of contemporary life in a big city.

Interesting Facts: In some scenes, the screen is divided in two halves to show different points of view.

9. Los Amantes del Círculo Polar

English Title: Lovers or the Arctic Circle

Director: Julio Medem

Year: 1998

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Najwa Nimri, Fele Martínez, Nancho Novo 

Plot: The love story of Otto and Ana, two kids that met by chance and travel the world to fulfill their destiny.

It’ll make you cry because: It’s a sad but beautiful love story.

Interesting Facts: The names Otto and Ana are palindromes, which means that they read the same backwards as forwards.

10. Elsa y Fred

English Title: Elsa & Fred

Director: Marcos Carnevale

Year: 2005

Spanish Accent: Spain, Argentina

Cast: Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla, Blanca Portillo 

Plot: Fred is a widower who moves to a new apartment in Madrid where he meets Elsa, an Argentinian pensioner decided to make the most of the years she still has left.

It’ll make you cry because: It’s never too late to love.

Interesting Facts: In 2014, Hollywood produced a remake of this film starring Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer.

11. Los Olvidados

English Title: The Young and the Damned

Director: Luis Buñuel

Year: 1950

Spanish Accent: México

Cast: Alfonso Mejía, Roberto Cobo, Silvia Pinal. 

Plot: A portrait of Mexico City’s life in the streets, where young members of a gang discover violence, hate, and evil. 

It’ll make you cry because: Portrays a world with no opportunities at all. 

Interesting Facts: It’s considered one of the best Spanish movies of the 20th century.

12. El Secreto de sus Ojos

English Title: The Secret in Their Eyes

Director: Juan José Campanella

Year: 2009

Spanish Accent: Argentina

Cast: Ricardo Darín, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago 

Plot: A retired justice is writing a novel using an old but inconclusive case as inspiration. While he starts digging into that old case for his book, new clues start to appear.

It’ll make you cry because: The case is one of rape and murder. 

Interesting Facts: The director of the film, Juan José Campanella, has directed episodes of US TV shows “CSI” and “Law and Order.”

13. Los Lunes al Sol

English Title: Mondays in the Sun

Director: Fernando León de Aranoa

Year: 2002

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Javier Bardem, Luis Tosar, José Ángel Egido 

Plot: Six men who used to work in a shipyard in Vigo, Spain, are now unemployed and have nothing else to do. That’s why they spend their days under the sun.

It’ll make you cry because: Society takes dignity away from grown men. 

Interesting Facts: The film won 46 international awards and is considered one of the best Spanish movies of all time.

14. Rojo Amanecer

English Title: Red Dawn

Director: Jorge Fons

Year: 1989

Spanish Accent: México

Cast: Héctor Bonilla, María Rojo, Jorge Fegán 

Plot: On October 2nd, 1968, a student protest was violently repressed by the Mexican government. Inside of a middle class family apartment overlooking the square where the protest takes place, we get a glimpse of the repression.

It’ll make you cry because: Young lives are taken with impunity. 

Interesting Facts: Based on real events, the film was censored in Mexico for many years. 

15. María Llena de Gracia

English Title: Maria Full of Grace

Director: Joshua Marston

Year: 2004

Spanish Accent: Colombia

Cast: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Patricia Rae, Yenny Paola Vega 

Plot: Maria is a 17-year-old Colombian girl who gets pregnant without seeking to. Instead of getting married to her boyfriend, she decides to fly to New York as a drug mule. 

It’ll make you cry because: Some people just never get a break. 

Interesting Facts: The film is not based on a single story but on different ones from Colombian immigrants living in Queens. 

16. Ya No Estoy Aquí

English Title: I’m No Longer Here

Director: Fernando Frías de la Parra

Year: 2020

Spanish Accent: México

Cast: Juan Daniel García Treviño, Yahir Alday, Angelina Chen 

Plot: Ulises is the leader of “Los Terkos,” a gang in Monterrey, México whose members listen to Cumbia, dress in baggy clothes, and wear eccentric hairstyles. He witnesses a murder by another gang and has to run away to the US. 

It’ll make you cry because: So many lives are destroyed by the war on drugs. 

Interesting Facts: The film was an instant hit in México after its release on Netflix.

17. Abre los Ojos

English Title: Open Your Eyes

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Year: 1997

Spanish Accent: Spain

Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Penelope Cruz, Najwa Nimri 

Plot: A handsome young man, Cesar, discovers his past and his identity after a car accident that disfigures his face and puts him in prison.

It’ll make you cry because: There is a whirlpool of emotions and feelings. 

Interesting Facts: The film inspired the remake “Vanilla Sky” starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz (again). 

18. Como Agua para Chocolate

English Title: Like Water for Chocolate

Director: Alfonso Arau

Year: 1992

Spanish Accent: México

Cast: Marco Leonardi, Lumi Cavazos, Regina Torné 

Plot: Tita, is forbidden to marry a person she loves as she must take care of her mother. Her lover, Pedro, marries her sister instead to be close to Tita, who from now on, connects cuisine with her strong emotions.

It’ll make you cry because: It’s a classic Mexican love story with no happy ending. 

Interesting Facts: The film is based on the book of the same title written by Mexican author Laura Esquivel.

19. La Vendedora de Rosas

English Title: The Rose Seller

Director: Víctor Gaviria

Year: 1998

Spanish Accent: Colombia

Cast: Lady Tabares, Mileider Gil, Geovanni Quiroz 

Plot: 10-year-old Andrea joins Monica, a 13-year-old flower seller in the streets of Colombia who introduces her to the cruel world of drugs and prostitution.

It’ll make you cry because: The characters in the movie are either dead, in prison, or living on the streets. 

Interesting Facts: The film is inspired by the 19th century tale “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen.

20. El Coronel No Tiene Quien le Escriba

English Title: No One Writes to the Colonel

Director: Arturo Ripstein

Year: 1999

Spanish Accent: México

Cast: Fernando Luján, Marisa Paredes, Salma Hayek 

Plot: A retired colonel is waiting for his pension, fifteen years after the war ended. 

It’ll make you cry because: Old people should be treated with dignity and the poor colonel has nothing left but that. 

Interesting Facts: The film is based on Gabriel García Márquez novel of the same title. 

The End

Did I leave out your favorite tear-jerking Spanish movie? Let me know in the comments!

Want to learn more about Latin American and Spanish entertainment? Check out these posts!

• Tan vs Tanto: What’s the Difference?
• Top 7 Best Books to Learn Spanish for Kids
• 15 Sight Word Games in Spanish for Kids
• What’s the Spanish Lisp? All About the Ceceo
• How to Give Congratulations in Spanish
• Poder Conjugation: Free Spanish Lesson and PDF
• 10 of the Best Female Latin American Tennis Players to Celebrate
• 10 Creative Ways to Practice Spanish