Gift idea: Spanish-language movies

If you're looking for an inexpensive gift for a Spanish student — or anyone who prefers a film alternative to what Hollywood has to offer — you could hardly go wrong with a film from our list of Spanish-language movies. This list, which ranks the most popular Spanish-language films in order of the popularity at the U.S. box office, includes romance, action, comedy, adventure and drama (sometimes all in the same film).

There's nothing on the list that's newer than 2004's Diarios de motocicleta, but that could change early next year. Despite its fairly limited release so far, Volver, the latest from Pedro Almodóvar, is approaching the $2 million mark in the United States. But with Penélope Cruz as one of the stars and the possibility of several Academy Award nominations, its potential is much higher: Internationally, the film has surpassed $66 million in box-office receipts, putting it in second place worldwide for non-English films so far in 2006, just behind Gwoemul, a South Korean horror flick.