Pedro Almodóvar is the gayest filmmaker to ever achieve mainstream success. Beginning his career in the aftermath of the Franco regime, Almodóvar has always pushed boundaries whether he’s portraying societal outsiders or excavating the absurdities of heteronormative life. He has a talent for turning the trickiest subjects into delightful entertainments through humor, drama, and those bright, bright colors.

His latest film, The Room Next Door, is his first feature film in English. At 75, he’s continuing to push himself as an artist — and push political boundaries with this exploration of euthanasia. While so much of his work astounds on its own, he’s an artist whose films feed into one another, the context of each enhancing the next.

To celebrate his latest, I’ve ranked all 25 Almodóvar films — 23 features plus his two latest shorts. (I’m not including any curios like his one available early short Salomé or his pasta commercial.) More than maybe any other filmmaker, I have a fondness for everything he’s done, so if you think I’ve ranked something too low, just know I agree with you. Every Almodóvar film is worth a watch.

25. Broken Embraces (2009)

Even “bad” Almodóvar is better than most movies. For me, this lands at the bottom, because I find Harry Caine/Mateo Blanco (as played by Lluís Homar) to be Almodóvar’s least interesting protagonist. Whenever Penélope Cruz is on-screen, the movie comes alive, but Almodóvar has done this kind of melodrama far better in other movies — several of which also feature Cruz.

24. I’m So Excited (2013)

If Broken Embraces was a controversial bottom pick, this is a very not controversial near-the-bottom pick. But I think people are too harsh on this one! No, it’s not Almodóvar’s best, but it’s a lot of fun, and the off-plane sequence with the phone call elevates the whole film.

23. The Human Voice (2020)

This is not the first time Almodóvar adapted Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice, but it is the first time he did it as a direct adaptation stand alone film. An experiment during Covid, this feels like Almodóvar stepping into a new phase of his career. With a strong performance from Tilda Swinton and gorgeous-even-for-Almodóvar production design, this was a real treat to receive during lockdown.

22. Dark Habits (1983)

While nuns behaving badly may seem readymade for farce, this is actually Almodóvar’s first foray into melodrama. It’s a tone he does better later on in his career, but with a cast of regular collaborators including Carmen Maura and Marisa Paredes this is still a deeply moving film.

21. Strange Way of Life (2023)

Okay, fine, this is basically a Saint Laurent commercial and Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal don’t really have chemistry, but I’m sorry I liked it! While marketed as Almodóvar’s response to Brokeback Mountain, a film he almost directed, I think it’s actually most interesting in the context of his career-long portrayal of law enforcement. Within this scrumptious gay trifle of a Western, he raises questions of illegality, immorality, and loyalty. What does life look like when we create our own moral codes instead of leaving them to the state?

20. Kika (1993)

I would argue this is one of Almodóvar’s most interesting films, one of his funniest, and one of his most unpleasant. But does it all work? That’s another matter. This is a film for hardcore Almodóvar fans, a work that illuminates and deepens some of his other films, while potentially being baffling and off-putting to the uninitiated.

19. Live Flesh (1997)

The opening of this film with Penélope Cruz giving birth on a bus is one of Almodóvar’s best sequences. The rest of the film never quite reaches these heights, but it’s interesting as one of Almodóvar’s most overtly political films from this era. The oppression of the past lingers long into the present.

18. Bad Education (2004)

I don’t love this film quite as much as most — maybe its depiction of transsexuality rings false in a way that disconnects me emotionally? — but I do think it’s one of the most important films in Almodóvar’s filmography. The most challenging aspect of his work is his frequent depiction of rape and other forms of sexual violence. But what others find gross or immoral, I’ve always found deeply personal. Yes, Almodóvar is a male director — he’s also a gay man who grew up in the Catholic church. This film depicts that trauma and through its meta-textual narrative even the transness acts as a confession: Trans or cis, the women of Almodóvar are often a hidden way to explore the lives of gay men. (I doubt there’s a market for this but I deeply want to write a book about that via both Almodóvar and Tennessee Williams…)

17. What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)

Not all of Almodóvar’s women feel like stand-ins for gay men — instead here he pays tribute to his mother and other women in his life. This is such a tender, magical film about surviving patriarchy through solidarity. Probably the most compelling case for murdering your husband in cinema history.

16. The Room Next Door (2024)

Most of the discourse around this film has revolved around it as Almodóvar’s feature English-language debut. But I think it’s most interesting for the ways expanding beyond Spain has expanded Almodóvar’s political interests to something more global. Yes, this film very explicitly takes on euthanasia but it’s also interested in climate change and war. Far from didactic, it instead focuses on an intimate friendship. With time, I think people’s esteem of this film will only rise.

15. The Flower of My Secret (1995)

This feels like a transitional film for Almodóvar from his early work to his most famous melodramas. But this is still a wonderful movie even if he’s trying some things out that he’ll do even better later. This film might just contain frequent collaborator María Paredes’ best performance, so if you’re looking for a way to celebrate her after her recent passing, I highly recommend.

14. Julieta (2016)

The lack of fanfare around this magical movie has always baffled me. Sure, it’s more Almodóvar doing Almodóvar than the risks of his next films, but he does it so well! There are multiple sequences in this film that stun me and they mostly come together for one complete portrait of a mother and daughter.

13. Labyrinth of Passion (1982)

This movie is bonkers. It’s offensive for a dozen reasons, but doesn’t take itself seriously enough to actually offend. It’s just a weird, dangerous work of outsider art that does nothing to hint at the more serious, Oscar-winning Almodóvar in the decades to come. Also the director makes a cameo as a flamboyant punk singer!

12. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)

The films of Alfred Hitchcock are felt all over Almodóvar’s work, but this is the first to directly engage with the horror genre. At one point, a film director character comments on the thin line between horror and romance and this portrays that with sickening complexity. Less a “look at Stockholm Syndrome” and more a satire that suggests heterosexuality is the real syndrome. Very okay to find this too unpleasant to enjoy — even if it has some very funny moments — but I don’t know how anyone can watch the final moments and think Almodóvar is saying this relationship is good.

11. The Skin I Live In (2011)

Twenty-two years later, Almodóvar finally re-teamed with Antonio Banderas for another complicated riff on the horror genre. Watching this before I knew I was trans, I felt guilty about how much I envied the fate of its central victim. I even googled “what do trans people think of the skin i live in.” Well, I can say this trans person thinks it’s use of horror and sci-fi makes me less concerned about its realism. In a world where Emilia Pérez is going to be nominated for Oscars with a similar understanding of trans surgeries, I’d always rather something like this that’s actually interesting in its exploration of gender and sexuality.

10. Parallel Mothers (2021)

These ten films are the masterpieces. Parallel Mothers is Almodóvar’s latest — and among the most direct — to reckon with Spain’s past. This is a film about accountability for individuals and accountability for a nation told through characters that are more than mere metaphors. Almodóvar’s work is getting even more political as he gets older and it’s thrilling to watch a great artist use his experience to grapple with Big Issues.

9. High Heels (1991)

This is Almodóvar’s best mommy issues movie. And, considering his filmography, that’s saying something!  While not as famous as some others, I think this ends the peak of Almodóvar’s early period. It riffs on Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata while being as fun and poppy as Almodóvar’s breeziest comedies. With a score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Bibiana Fernández’s most memorable role, I hope casual Almodóvar fans make sure to check this one out.

8. Matador (1986)

There are the Almodóvar films I’d recommend to everyone and the ones I would not. This is the latter but God what a film! Within the uncomfortable it finds so much beauty and curiosity and even eroticism. This is a bold film, a difficult film, and — if you’re up for it — a deeply rewarding film.

7. Talk to Her (2002)

While Matador is the most challenging of his early period, Talk to Her is the most challenging of his prestige period. It’s wild to me that this movie won an Oscar. And it’s also a film I completely understand people hating. But taken within the context of his body of work, I think there’s value in art that tries to understand violence and misogyny — even when shielded by a false kindness or love. The original Sleeping Beauty fairy tale ends with a woman — pregnant from rape — waking up during childbirth. Is the Disney approach to changing that to true love’s kiss better for our world than engaging deeper with the implications of a foundational cultural myth? Again, I do understand thinking this movie totally fails or that its narrative is impossible to salvage. But, taken as a modern fairy tale, I think it has much to offer.

6. Volver (2006)

I don’t believe Almodóvar is ever apologizing for his work, but Bad Education and Volver are fascinating as follow-ups to the worldwide success of Talk to Her. If sexual assault in the first film doesn’t seem to hold the weight it should, his next films treat it with the utmost severity while still holding onto complexity. Volver is film about women that holds trauma and guilt and forgiveness all at once. While the violence of men is a driving force, male characters are hardly seen. This film has given up on them, instead offering its women the chance to heal together. Re-teaming with Carmen Maura after decades apart and featuring Penélope Cruz’s best performance, Volver is not only one of Almodóvar’s greatest films — it’s also the easiest to love.

5. Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)

Maybe I’m just a dyke and therefore am overrating Almodóvar’s first (available) feature due to its focus on queer women. Or maybe I’m a filmmaker absolutely in awe of the messy freedom and bold choices made by Almodóvar when he was just starting out. The still above shows Carmen Maura watching as a policeman’s wife gets peed on erotically by another woman as revenge for the policeman raping her. This is an anarchist farce that holds a depth of sadness underneath its comic tone. Being yourself in the face of fascism takes a toll and that’s why it’s so important to be friends with lesbian punk singers.

4. Pain and Glory (2019)

By turning to the personal, Almodóvar made one of his best. Antonio Banderas — styled like Almodóvar — plays a filmmaker grappling with illness and mortality, the past and a burgeoning heroin addiction. Alternating between this present consumed with the past and flashbacks to a past consumed with the future, Almodóvar crafts a tender self-portrait that opts for realism over melodrama or farce. There is so much love in casting frequent collaborators Penélope Cruz and Julieta Serrano as the younger and older versions of his less-than-perfect mother and so much possibility in depicting the difficult through cinema. I love this movie and I know I’ll only appreciate it even more with every decade I age.

3. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

If you’ve never seen an Almodóvar movie, this is where you should start. It’s just so much fun from its first second to its last. It has a comic pace unmatched by any film outside the very best of Old Hollywood screwballs and a craft that awes you with beauty while your’e laughing. During his recent directors on directors interview with Halina Reijn, Almodóvar revealed that this film started out as his an adaptation of The Human Voice. That context only deepens a film all about love and betrayal, desire and desperation.

2. All About My Mother (1999)

“To Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider… To all actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to men who act and become women, to all people who want to become mothers. To my mother.” Almodóvar’s most perfect film is a tribute to women: mothers, dykes, transsexuals, sex workers, actresses. It’s a story about grief and reinvention and the possibilities found in community. This was the first Almodóvar film I saw as a confused teen boy and it made me the woman I am today.

1. Law of Desire (1987)

In 1988, Almodóvar released Women on the Verge and achieved global success. But the year before he made this very gay, very trans, very unpalatable masterpiece. This feels like Almodóvar’s most personal film until Pain and Glory and within the story of a horny filmmaker lies his most effective exploration of love and violence. But while the complicated sexual relationships and explicit sex scenes are great, my favorite aspect of the film is the dynamic between the protagonist and his trans sister. She is engaged in her own psychosexual nightmare off-screen and together they find tenderness amid their separate chaos. All About My Mother may have made me the woman I am today, but Law of Desire made me the filmmaker. It’s everything I want from cinema, that I aspire to achieve with cinema, and it remains the Almodóvar film I return to most. I love it so much I could kill.

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