56 Pedro Almodovar Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

Benigno, a male nurse who fell in love with Alicia after seeing her dance, becomes her caregiver after she ends up in coma following a car accident. When journalist Marco comes to the hospital with his comatose girlfriend, bullfighter Lydia, the two men bond and Benigno encourages Marco to talk to Lydia like he does to Alicia.

The story focuses on an Argentine nurse, overseeing donor organ transplants in a Madrid hospital. Also single mother, she loses her only son in a road accident and after donating his heart, moves to Barcelona to find her son’s father, a transgender woman. Winner of multiple awards, the film successfully deals in such complex issues like homosexuality, transsexualism, AIDs and faith.

Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker, remembers his past, and he recalls all the mistakes that he had made. He also cherishes all the beautiful moments of his past. This eventually leads him to thoughts regarding life and art, which matters to him the most.

This Spanish comedy drama film tells the story of a television actress, who is left by her lover without any apparent reason. She embarks on a journey to find out why, but on her way, she comes across multiple eccentric characters.

Gloria is a housewife who lives in a small apartment with her mother-in-law, two sons and her husband Antonio. They are struggling to make ends meet, and Gloria works a cleaning lady to earn some extra money. Their lives take an ugly turn, when Gloria hits Antonio with a piece of wood one day, while having an argument, leading to Antonio’s death.  

As known as The Skin I Live In is a psychological thriller that revolves around the life of a young woman named Vera. She has been held captive and experimented on by plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard who has developed an artificial skin resistant to burns. The revelation of Vera’s true identity leads to Robert’s eventual downfall. 

The movie revolves around the lives of sisters Raimunda and Sole, who live in Madrid after losing their parents in a fire three years ago. Raimunda goes to absurd lengths to protect her daughter after Paula murders her would-be rapist and her mother Irene returns from the dead to fix the family.  

My Life Without Me is a romantic drama film which tells the story of a hard-working mother who discovers that she is having terminal ovarian cancer and has only two months to live. She decides not to let her family know, in order to live her remaining days happily.

After his father’s death in Spanish Civil War, 12-year-old Carlos is sent to a remote orphanage, Santa Lucia School. Though head-mistress Carmen and kind professor Casares are considerate, he has difficulties with hostile caretaker Jacinto. Not very comfortable in that place, Carlos encounters Santi, ghost of a missing former occupant who keeps badgering Carlos. Gradually Carlos unearths many secrets of the orphanage.

An aspiring actor, Ignacio Rodriguez, brings a semi-autobiographical manuscript to old school friend, filmmaker Enrique Guded, who is reminded of their days at St. John’s Catholic School, their first sexual experience with each other followed by Enrique being expelled by Principle Father Manolo while Ignacio gets victimized. But as Ignacio is now a totally changed person, Enrique needs to find out facts.

A lonely woman with impaired hearing gives up her first holiday in years. She travels to an oil rig, to care for a man who has suffered severe burns, after surviving an accident.

Victor goes to meet Elena for a date; however Elena is uninterested. They soon get into an argument which eventually results in Elena accidentally shooting a policeman named David.

Death of millionaire Ernesto Martel sets off Harry Caine, a blind writer and former film director, on a trip down memory lane. The Spanish romantic-thriller was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 67th Golden Globe Awards and serves as a tribute to filmmaking and cinema.

High Heels is a romantic comedy drama film which revolves around the fractured relationship between a famous singer, and her grown daughter whom she had abandoned as a child. Their relationship gets more complicated as the daughter, who works as a news anchor, gets married to the ex-lover of her mother.

About to leave Madrid with boyfriend Lorenzo, middle-aged Julieta runs into Beatriz, her estranged daughter Antia’s childhood friend. After learning that married Antia now lives with her family in Switzerland, Julieta breaks-up with Lorenzo, moves in her former apartment, hopeful that her daughter will communicate. While waiting, a distraught Julieta writes her memories, reliving Antia’s childhood, and separation that left many questions unanswered.

Porn director Pablo reluctantly breaks up with his boyfriend Juan, after which the latter moves away to live in a lighthouse. Juan writes to Pablo, but Pablo is now seeing Antonio, a fan who is psychotic and obsessive in nature.  

Despite her successful career as a writer, Leo Macias is quite frustrated with her personal and professional life, mostly due to the fact that her husband, a soldier, is always away. Things begin to change when she meets Angel, an editor.

In this Spanish black comedy film, a nightclub singer seeks refuge in a nunnery after her boyfriend dies due to an overdose. However, she is in for a shock, upon finding out that the lifestyle of the nuns includes pornography as well as drugs.    

This dark comedy romance film tells us the story of Ricky, who has just been released from a mental institution. He tries to reunite with the love of his life, Marina, an actress. Things get very problematic when he finds out that Marina doesn’t remember who he is, as they had met only for a while during her years as a junkie and a porn star.

Diego Montez is a retired matador, who is now working as a teacher. One of his students Angel, attempts to rape Diego’s girlfriend, Eva, but fails, and turns himself in. He also confesses to a series of murders that he has seen in vision. However, the police don’t seem to be convinced that he is the culprit.

Nicholas brings in a cosmetologist named Kika, in order to prepare to corpse of his son, who has passed away recently. Things take a turn when his son, Ramon, is revived from his death, and both Ramon and Kika soon fall in love. However, this complicates things, as Nicholas wants Kika for himself. Meanwhile, Ramon also suspects his father of having an involvement in the death of his mother.

The love between a vaudeville performer and her boyfriend, a younger actor, is put to the test, when an older lady tries to lure the man by tempting him with her wealth.  

This comedy film tells the story of a poor girl working in a general store, with her blind boyfriend who plays guitar. However, over time, he starts to gain fame.

When a Spanish flight headed for Mexico faces technical difficulties, and it appears that there is no escape, the crew decides to drug every person in the economy class, and try to cheer the small group of passengers in the business class.

Salomé is a 1978 Spanish short film directed by Pedro Almodovar, which is a retelling of the Biblical tale of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son. 

Rosa is a middle-aged woman whose life begins to change radically after she gets divorced to her husband Jorge. She soon gets acquainted with a young rocker. Despite her differences with the man, they experience various exciting situations in Madrid.