Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1377
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Penélope Cruz represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 35 years in, and Penélope is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Penélope Cruz appears in 47 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Penélope. All About My Mother is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for drama, thriller, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Florian Zeller, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Javier Ambrossi and others, Penélope Cruz helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
All About My Mother (1999) as Rosa · Volver (2006) as Raimunda · Open Your Eyes (1997) as Sofía
Career snapshot
Ranked #1377 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
47
1992–2027
Career length
35 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
All About My Mother
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
The Invite
Most frequent director
Pedro Almodóvar
7 films together
Longest collaboration
7×
With Pedro Almodóvar
Most common genre
Drama
34 titles
Average runtime
1h 55m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.9
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.5
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
7.0 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. All About My Mother, Live Flesh, Open Your Eyes — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.0
Across 5 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. All About My Mother, Live Flesh, Open Your Eyes.
Most productive era
2000s
17 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.05 films | 6.413 films | 6.57 films | 5.89 films |
| Action | — | 5.83 films | 5.83 films | 6.01 film |
| Thriller | 7.32 films | 7.21 film | 5.92 films | 4.03 films |
| Comedy | 6.83 films | 6.16 films | 5.75 films | 6.92 films |
| Crime | — | 6.72 films | 6.24 films | — |
| Romance | 6.63 films | 6.411 films | 6.43 films | 7.21 film |
| Horror | — | — | — | 6.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1992Jamon Jamon
Where our catalogue meets this career, as La hija de puta.
Highest rated performance
7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2006Volver
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2027Bunker
The current state of the argument.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
47 of 47 films
as Raimunda
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
as Gemma
Directed by Sergio Castellitto
as Lena
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
as Sofía
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Raimunda
Volver (2006)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Raimunda gives Penélope Cruz a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Gemma
Twice Born (2012)
Performance score7.9
Twice Born asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gemma is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Lena
Broken Embraces (2009)
Performance score7.8
Broken Embraces asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Lena is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Sofía
Open Your Eyes (1997)
Performance score7.8
Open Your Eyes asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sofía is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Raimunda
Start here. Volver is the clearest statement of what Penélope Cruz does — accessible, 121 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Penélope at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Open Your Eyes (1997)
Keeps the drama register of Volver but asks for a colder reading of it.
Blow (2001)
Keeps the drama register of Open Your Eyes but asks for a colder reading of it.
Broken Embraces (2009)
Keeps the drama register of Blow but asks for a colder reading of it.
Twice Born (2012)
Keeps the romance register of Broken Embraces but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Pedro Almodóvar
Director
7 films together
Notably All About My Mother
Rob Marshall
Director
2 films together
Notably Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Sergio Castellitto
Director
2 films together
Notably Twice Born
Woody Allen
Director
2 films together
Notably Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Billy Bob Thornton
Director
1 film together
Notably All the Pretty Horses
John Madden
Director
1 film together
Notably Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Cameron Crowe
Director
1 film together
Notably Vanilla Sky
Ted Demme
Director
1 film together
Notably Blow
Chazz Palminteri
Director
1 film together
Notably Noel
Breck Eisner
Director
1 film together
Notably Sahara
Espen Sandberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Bandidas
Isabel Coixet
Director
1 film together
Notably Elegy
Michael Patrick King
Director
1 film together
Notably Sex and the City 2
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably The Counselor
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably Grimsby
Ben Stiller
Director
1 film together
Notably Zoolander 2
Kenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together
Notably Murder on the Orient Express
Asghar Farhadi
Director
1 film together
Notably Everybody Knows
Olivier Assayas
Director
1 film together
Notably Wasp Network
Mariano Cohn
Director
1 film together
Notably Official Competition
Juan Diego Botto
Director
1 film together
Notably On the Fringe
Simon Kinberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The 355
Michael Mann
Director
1 film together
Notably Ferrari
Kevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together
Notably High & Low – John Galliano
Olivia Wilde
Director
1 film together
Notably The Invite
Javier Ambrossi
Director
1 film together
Notably La Bola Negra
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bride!
Florian Zeller
Director
1 film together
Notably Bunker
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Pedro Almodóvar
Director
7 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 7 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
All About My MotherSergio Castellitto
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Twice BornWoody Allen
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Vicky Cristina BarcelonaRob Marshall
Director
2 films together · 6.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger TidesTed Demme
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BlowOlivia Wilde
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InviteCameron Crowe
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Vanilla SkyKenneth Branagh
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Murder on the Orient ExpressJuan Diego Botto
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
On the FringeMariano Cohn
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Official CompetitionAsghar Farhadi
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everybody KnowsMichael Mann
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FerrariJavier Ambrossi
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
La Bola NegraIsabel Coixet
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ElegyKevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
High & Low – John GallianoMaggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bride!Olivier Assayas
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wasp NetworkSimon Kinberg
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The 355Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GrimsbyMichael Patrick King
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sex and the City 2Espen Sandberg
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BandidasJohn Madden
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Captain Corelli's MandolinBreck Eisner
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SaharaChazz Palminteri
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NoelBilly Bob Thornton
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
All the Pretty HorsesRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The CounselorBen Stiller
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Zoolander 2Florian Zeller
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BunkerSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Volver
as Raimunda
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Twice Born
as Gemma
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
All About My Mother
as Rosa
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Sex and the City 2
as Carmen García Carrión
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Volver
as Raimunda
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Penélope Cruz has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
35 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
34 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
All About My Mother
as Rosa
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Murder on the Orient Express
as Pilar Estravados
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Ferrari
as Laura Ferrari
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Murder on the Orient Express
as Pilar Estravados
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
as Angelica
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The 355
as Graciela Rivera
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Woman on Top
as Isabella Oliveira
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Blow
as Mirtha Jung
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Robert De Niro
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Al Pacino
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
Which Penélope Cruz performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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