# The best Mexican films of all time

The classics at the top of Somos magazine's 100 best Mexican films (with Let's Go with Pancho Villa and Los olvidados at the very top) and the modern titles critics and audiences have added since.

- 59 votes · 26 items
- Aug 25, 2025 · Mauricio Rodríguez
- https://even.best/en/l/275/the-best-mexican-films-of-all-time

## Top 25

1. **Los Olvidados** (8 · ▲8 ▼0) — Luis Buñuel, 1950. Street children in Mexico City; Best Director at Cannes and on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
2. **Let's Go with Pancho Villa** (8 · ▲8 ▼0) — Fernando de Fuentes, 1936. Six friends join Villa's División del Norte; number one on the Somos list.
3. **Aventurera** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Alberto Gout, 1950. Ninón Sevilla in the great classic of the 'rumbera' film genre.
4. **Amores Perros** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000. Three stories linked by a car crash in Mexico City.
5. **Godfather Mendoza** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Fernando de Fuentes, 1933. A landowner who plays both sides during the Revolution.
6. **A Family Like Many Others** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Alejandro Galindo, 1949. A vacuum-cleaner salesman shakes up an authoritarian family.
7. **Macario** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Roberto Gavaldón, 1960. A woodcutter shares his turkey with Death; the first Mexican film nominated for an Oscar.
8. **Like Water for Chocolate** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Alfonso Arau, 1992. Laura Esquivel's novel; one of the highest-grossing Spanish-language films in the US.
9. **Roma** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Alfonso Cuarón, 2018. Cleo, a live-in maid in Mexico City's Roma district in 1970–71; Golden Lion and three Oscars.
10. **Y Tu Mamá También** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Alfonso Cuarón, 2001. Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna on a road trip to a beach that doesn't exist.
11. **The Exterminating Angel** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Luis Buñuel, 1962. Dinner guests find themselves unable to leave the room.
12. **Here's the Point** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Juan Bustillo Oro, 1940. Cantinflas and his way of talking without saying anything.
13. **Pueblerina** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Emilio Fernández, 1949. A man leaves prison and returns to the woman who was dishonoured.
14. **Red Dawn** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Jorge Fons, 1989. The Tlatelolco massacre seen from an apartment; made despite censorship.
15. **We the Poor** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Ismael Rodríguez, 1948. Pedro Infante as Pepe el Toro; the most popular melodrama in Mexican cinema.
16. **Hell Without Limits** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Arturo Ripstein, 1978. La Manuela, a brothel and a village; adapted from José Donoso.
17. **Herod's Law** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Luis Estrada, 1999. Damián Alcázar as a corrupt mayor; a satire of the PRI.
18. **My Son, the Hero** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Ismael Rodríguez, 1961. A black-and-white Mexican western about two brothers raised for revenge.
19. **Nazarín** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Luis Buñuel, 1959. A priest who tries to live by the Gospel; International Prize at Cannes.
20. **This Strange Passion** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Luis Buñuel, 1953. Arturo de Córdova and the pathological jealousy of a respectable man.
21. **The Woman of the Port** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Arcady Boytler, 1934. Andrea Palma in a harbour melodrama from the early sound era.
22. **The Castle of Purity** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Arturo Ripstein, 1973. A father locks his family away for years to protect them from the world.
23. **Duck Season** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Fernando Eimbcke, 2004. Two teenagers in a Tlatelolco apartment on a Sunday power cut; eleven Ariel awards.
24. **Danzón** (-1 · ▲1 ▼2) — María Novaro, 1991. María Rojo searches for her dance partner in Veracruz.
25. **Enamorada** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Emilio Fernández, 1946. María Félix and Pedro Armendáriz, shot by Gabriel Figueroa.
26. **Canoa: A Shameful Memory** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Felipe Cazals, 1976. The lynching of university workers in a Puebla village in 1968.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.