Pedro Almodóvar had a busy 2020. He scored his latest Oscar nomination for “Pain and Glory” in February, shortly before the pandemic took hold, and spent several weeks in lockdown writing a series of essays that were published in English on this site. By midyear, the Spanish auteur was working on his first English-language filmmaking endeavor, the Tilda Swinton-starring “The Human Voice,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the fall and opens in theaters in March 2021. In the midst of all that, Almodóvar also found time to watch some new films. Here is his annotated list of favorites, which he published this week on the site of his production company. It has been translated here into English by Deirdre Mac Closkey with his approval.

This list has been updated to include “Nomadland,” which Almodóvar watched after the initial publication of his favorite films.

“Nomadland,” by Chloé Zhao

After Fern (Frances McDormand) loses all,...