The Best Films of the 21st Century, Chosen by Spanish Filmmakers

Here’s a Sunday list as the holiday weekend wraps up. Spanish film directors were polled by El Diario to name the best films of the 21st century.

Names like Pedro Almodóvar, Carla Simón, Oliver Laxe, and Alejandro Amenábar, among many others, were asked to choose the films that had marked them the most over the last 25 years.

This poll was inspired by The New York Times’ recent 21st-century results, which were topped by Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite,” a film that didn’t even crack the top 25 in the Spanish poll. What does that say? Instead, David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” was ranked No. 1, followed by Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love.”

Perennial U.S. favorites from this century, such as “Moonlight,” “Get Out,” “There Will Be Blood,” “The Social Network,” “No Country for Old Men,” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” were nowhere to be found in the top 25.

1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)

2. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)

3. La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel)

4. The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke)

5. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)

6. The Gleaners & I (Agnès Varda)

7. Amour (Michael Haneke)

8. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar)

9. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)

10. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)

11. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)

12. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)

13. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)

14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)

15. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

16. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)

17. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

18. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar)

19. The Wonders (Alice Rohrwacher)

20. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr)

21. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)

22. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Cristi Mungiu)

23. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)

24. Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr)

25. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)