Selena Gomez best movies

Selena Gomez Best Movies Ranked: Top 10 Films from Emilia Pérez to Spring Breakers (2025)

When people search for Selena Gomez best movies, they are often surprised by the range and depth of what they find. This is not a one-note performer coasting on pop star fame — Gomez has built one of the most genuinely diverse filmographies of any entertainer of her generation, spanning Disney Channel classics, cult indie films, animated blockbusters and now an awards-season juggernaut that received 13 Academy Award nominations. The journey from Princess Protection Program (2009) to Emilia Pérez (2024) is one of the most interesting career arcs in modern Hollywood — and it is only getting better.

This guide ranks Selena Gomez’s 10 best movies with real IMDb ratings, proper plot summaries, critical reception and exactly where to watch each one. Every claim is sourced and verified. No fabricated quotes. No made-up statistics. Just the films, the facts and why each one matters.

For more on the best Hollywood films and performances of recent years, see our guide to the Avatar: Fire and Ash review and box office breakdown, and our Rachel McAdams Walk of Fame ceremony coverage — another actress whose career trajectory shares interesting parallels with Gomez’s evolution.


📋 Selena Gomez Best Movies: Quick Reference Table

# Movie Year IMDb Genre Where to Watch
1 Emilia Pérez 2024 6.5/10 Musical Crime Drama Netflix
2 The Big Short 2015 7.8/10 Comedy Drama Netflix, Prime Video
3 Spring Breakers 2012 5.3/10 Crime Drama Prime Video, Tubi
4 The Fundamentals of Caring 2016 7.4/10 Comedy Drama Netflix
5 Hotel Transylvania (franchise) 2012–2022 7.1/10 (Avg) Animated Comedy Netflix, Prime Video
6 Monte Carlo 2011 6.3/10 Romantic Comedy Disney+
7 Ramona and Beezus 2010 6.4/10 Family Comedy Disney+
8 A Rainy Day in New York 2019 6.3/10 Romantic Drama Prime Video, Tubi
9 Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie 2009 6.9/10 Family Fantasy Disney+
10 Princess Protection Program 2009 5.8/10 Family Adventure Disney+

🎬 Who Is Selena Gomez? A Brief Career Overview

Born on July 22, 1992 in Grand Prairie, Texas, Selena Marie Gomez began acting at age 10 with a small role on Barney & Friends (2002). Her career accelerated rapidly through Disney Channel, where she starred as Alex Russo in the Emmy-winning series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012) — widely considered one of the finest Disney Channel shows ever produced.

Selena Gomez best movies

What makes Gomez’s career story distinctive is the breadth of her ambitions. Simultaneously with her acting career, she launched a music career in 2008, founded the cosmetics company Rare Beauty in 2020 (now estimated to be worth $2 billion, making her one of the youngest female self-made billionaires in the United States), and serves as an executive producer on acclaimed television including Thirteen Reasons Why and Only Murders in the Building.

Throughout all of this, she has been open about significant personal health challenges — including a lupus diagnosis and a kidney transplant from friend Francia Raisa in 2017 — which has made her one of the most admired and relatable public figures of her generation. According to Gold Derby, at 32 years old she is “an award-winning musician, a critically acclaimed actress, a successful businesswoman, and the epitome of a social media influencer.”

Her 2024 work in Emilia Pérez represents a genuine artistic step-change — a Spanish-language film role that required her to learn the language and demonstrated a level of dramatic ambition that surprised even longtime fans.


1. Emilia Pérez (2024) — Her Most Important Film

  • Director: Jacques Audiard
  • Cast: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Édgar Ramírez
  • Gomez plays: Jessica “Jessi” Del Monte — Manitas’s US-raised wife and mother of their children
  • IMDb Rating: 6.5/10 (audience divisive; critics strongly positive)
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 75% Critics / 26% Audience
  • Language: Spanish (Gomez learned Spanish for the role)
  • Watch on: Netflix

Plot: A French-produced Spanish-language musical crime film that follows four women whose lives become intertwined around a Mexican cartel leader’s secret desire to transition. Jessi (Selena Gomez) is the American-raised wife and mother of the cartel leader Manitas’s children — caught in the middle of extraordinary circumstances as her husband’s plan to fake his own death and undergo gender-affirming surgery reshapes everyone’s lives.

Awards and accolades: Emilia Pérez became one of the most decorated films of the 2024–2025 awards season:

  • World premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival — received a nine-minute standing ovation, won the Jury Prize and the Best Actress Award for its female ensemble (including Gomez)
  • 13 Academy Award nominations at the 97th Oscars — the most nominations of any film and the most ever for a non-English language film, breaking the record held by Roma (2018)
  • 10 Golden Globe nominations — won 4, including Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Best Non-English Language Film
  • Selena Gomez received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress — nominated alongside Ariana Grande (Wicked), Zoe Saldaña and Felicity Jones
  • Named one of the Top 10 Films of 2024 by the American Film Institute
  • Set a Guinness World Record for most Oscar nominations for a non-English language film

Why it matters for Gomez’s career: This film represents Gomez at her most artistically ambitious. She learned Spanish for the role — she is third-generation Mexican American — and performs musical numbers entirely in Spanish. The film’s divisive critical and audience reception (critics loved it; general audiences were more mixed) means her performance exists in a complex context, but the awards recognition validates the artistic leap she took. According to Wikipedia’s comprehensive Emilia Pérez entry, the Cannes Best Actress award was given collectively to the entire female ensemble — including Gomez.

Watch on: Netflix in Spanish with English subtitles (and English dubbed version available).


2. The Big Short (2015) — Her Most Surprising Cameo

  • Director: Adam McKay
  • Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Selena Gomez
  • Gomez plays: Herself — in a memorable fourth-wall-breaking cameo
  • IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 88% Critics / 88% Audience
  • Award: Won Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
  • Watch on: Netflix, Prime Video

Plot: Adam McKay’s Oscar-winning comedy-drama about the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the small group of investors who predicted and profited from the collapse of the US housing market. The film is famous for breaking the fourth wall to explain complex financial concepts — using celebrities and unexpected scenarios to make dense economic theory accessible to general audiences.

Gomez’s cameo: Selena Gomez appears alongside real-world economist Richard Thaler at a blackjack table in a sequence designed to explain synthetic collateralised debt obligations — one of the instruments at the heart of the financial collapse. The cameo is one of the most memorable in the film because of how effectively the game of blackjack is used as a metaphor for cascading financial risk. Despite being a brief appearance, it is consistently cited by critics and film analysts as one of the most effective celebrity cameos in recent cinema — including by Game Rant’s ranking of her best film appearances.

Why it matters: The Big Short demonstrated that Gomez could hold her own in an ensemble of the most respected dramatic actors in Hollywood — and do it with genuine charm and intelligence in a film that went on to win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.


3. Spring Breakers (2012) — Her Most Daring Role

  • Director: Harmony Korine
  • Cast: Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco
  • Gomez plays: Faith — the most morally conflicted of the four college girls
  • IMDb Rating: 5.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 66% Critics / 42% Audience
  • Watch on: Prime Video, Tubi

Plot: Four college girls — Faith (Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) — are desperate to fund a spring break trip to Florida. They rob a restaurant to get the money and head to St. Petersburg, where an arrest leads to them being bailed out by Alien (James Franco) — a local drug dealer, rapper and criminal who draws them deeper into his violent world. Faith, the most Christian and principled of the four, is the only one who begins to question where they are heading.

Why it matters: Spring Breakers is the film that definitively ended Gomez’s Disney-era image and announced her as a serious dramatic actress. Her choice to play Faith — a character who starts the film as a naive, God-fearing girl and ends it leaving the situation because she recognises the darkness the others are embracing — showed remarkable instinct about the kind of roles she needed to pursue. According to Collider’s comprehensive ranking, Spring Breakers is one of the defining moments of her transition from child star to adult actress. James Franco’s performance as Alien is widely regarded as one of his career bests, and Gomez holds her own against him in every scene they share.

Note: This film is rated R and contains violence, drug use and adult content. Not suitable for younger viewers.


4. The Fundamentals of Caring (2016) — Her Best Dramatic Performance

  • Director: Rob Burnett
  • Cast: Paul Rudd, Craig Roberts, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Ehle, Bobby Cannavale
  • Gomez plays: Dot — a free-spirited hitchhiker who joins the road trip
  • IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 81% Critics / 84% Audience
  • Premiered: Sundance Film Festival 2016
  • Watch on: Netflix

Plot: Ben (Paul Rudd) is a writer dealing with a devastating personal loss who takes a job as a carer for Trevor (Craig Roberts), an 18-year-old with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who uses a wheelchair. Trevor’s lifelong dream is to visit the World’s Deepest Pit in Colorado, and Ben decides to take him on a road trip across America to make it happen. Along the way they pick up Dot (Selena Gomez), a hitchhiker whose sharp cynicism and genuine warmth gradually break through both men’s emotional walls.

Why it is her best dramatic work: The Fundamentals of Caring premiered at Sundance and earned some of the strongest reviews of Gomez’s career. Her performance as Dot balances sardonic wit with genuine vulnerability in ways that feel completely natural — she is funny, sharp and emotionally real in equal measure. Collider and multiple other outlets identify this as the performance where Gomez’s dramatic potential was most clearly demonstrated before Emilia Pérez. Paul Rudd described working with her as effortless, and the film’s 7.4 IMDb score reflects an audience response that is both enthusiastic and consistent.

Best for: Viewers who want to see Gomez in a genuinely moving dramatic performance. The road trip format and the relationship between Ben and Trevor are deeply humane and earn their emotional payoff completely honestly. Available on Netflix worldwide.


5. Hotel Transylvania Franchise (2012–2022) — Her Most Commercially Successful Role

  • Gomez voices: Mavis Dracula — Dracula’s daughter and the franchise’s female lead
  • Hotel Transylvania (2012): IMDb 7.1 — Box office $358 million worldwide
  • Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015): IMDb 6.7 — Box office $473 million worldwide
  • Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018): IMDb 6.6 — Box office $528 million worldwide
  • Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022): IMDb 5.7 — Amazon Prime Original
  • Watch on: Netflix (1–3), Prime Video (Transformania)

About the franchise: The Hotel Transylvania series follows Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) who runs a luxury resort for monsters where they can holiday safely away from humans. His teenage daughter Mavis (Gomez) longs to explore the human world — a wish that leads to increasingly chaotic adventures across four films and a spin-off series. The franchise grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide across its theatrical run, making Gomez’s Mavis one of the most commercially successful voice roles in her career.

Why Mavis matters to Gomez’s career: The Hotel Transylvania franchise gave Gomez her most sustained commercial success in film and introduced her voice and personality to an entirely new generation of global audiences — including millions of young viewers in India who know her primarily through these animated films. Collider notes that the franchise represents her most commercially reliable film persona. Her voice work is consistently praised across all four films for its energy and genuine warmth.


6. Monte Carlo (2011) — The Fan Favourite Romance

  • Director: Thomas Bezucha
  • Cast: Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, Katie Cassidy, Cory Monteith, Pierre Boulanger
  • Gomez plays: Grace Bennett / Cordelia Winthrop Scott (dual role)
  • IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 38% Critics / 66% Audience
  • Box Office: $38 million worldwide
  • Watch on: Disney+

Plot: Texas teenager Grace (Selena Gomez) saves up for a dream graduation trip to Paris with her stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) and friend Emma (Katie Cassidy). When a mix-up results in Grace being mistaken for spoilt British heiress Cordelia Winthrop Scott — whom she happens to resemble exactly — the three find themselves swept into a world of Monaco glamour, luxury hotels and unexpected romance, while desperately trying to maintain the deception.

Why fans love it: Monte Carlo is the quintessential Selena Gomez rom-com — light, charming and built entirely around her natural warmth and comedic timing. Audiences consistently rate it more generously than critics (66% audience score vs 38% critics), reflecting the film’s success as pure feel-good entertainment rather than high art. The dual role gives Gomez more range to play with than most of her Disney-era films, and the Monaco backdrop gives the film a visual glamour that has made it a consistent rewatch favourite. Available in full on Disney+ globally.


7. Ramona and Beezus (2010) — Her Most Underrated Performance

  • Director: Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum
  • Cast: Joey King, Selena Gomez, John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Ginnifer Goodwin
  • Gomez plays: Beatrice “Beezus” Quimby — Ramona’s older, more responsible sister
  • IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 73% Critics / 70% Audience
  • Watch on: Disney+

Plot: Based on Beverly Cleary’s beloved children’s book series, the film follows the Quimby family — specifically the rivalry and deep bond between imaginative, chaos-causing nine-year-old Ramona (Joey King) and her responsible, frequently exasperated older sister Beezus (Selena Gomez). When the family faces financial difficulties and the possibility of losing their home, the sisters must work together in ways that deepen their relationship beyond sibling rivalry.

Why it is underrated: Ramona and Beezus holds a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and is consistently cited as one of the more emotionally honest family films Gomez has appeared in. Her performance as Beezus — loving but genuinely frustrated, responsible but not preachy — is quietly excellent. The film also features a genuinely moving subplot about a family dog that affected both Gomez and her co-star Joey King deeply during filming. King has spoken in interviews about how the emotional scenes between them felt completely real. Available on Disney+ worldwide.


8. A Rainy Day in New York (2019) — Her Most Mature Romance

  • Director: Woody Allen
  • Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna
  • Gomez plays: Shannon Cobwell — Gatsby’s (Chalamet’s) New York ex-girlfriend
  • IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 52% Critics / 74% Audience
  • Watch on: Prime Video, Tubi

Plot: College student Gatsby Wells (Timothée Chalamet) plans a romantic weekend in New York with his girlfriend Ashleigh (Elle Fanning), who has a magazine assignment there. When Ashleigh gets swept into a whirlwind of encounters with a famous director (Liev Schreiber) and screenwriter (Jude Law), Gatsby finds himself wandering rainy Manhattan alone — eventually reconnecting with Shannon (Selena Gomez), a sophisticated New York girl who makes him reconsider everything.

Context and performance: A Rainy Day in New York was filmed in 2017 but its release was delayed until 2019–2020 due to controversies surrounding Woody Allen. It is worth noting that Gomez herself donated her salary from the film to charity. Despite the surrounding context, her performance as Shannon — cool, charming and completely at ease in a Woody Allen romantic comedy framework — is consistently praised as her most mature screen presence in a traditional film role before Emilia Pérez. Collider’s ranking of her best work cites this as a significant performance step forward. The film’s 74% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes reflects its considerable charm.


9. Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009) — The Essential Disney Chapter

  • Director: Lev L. Spiro
  • Cast: Selena Gomez, David Henrie, Jake T. Austin, Jennifer Stone
  • Gomez plays: Alex Russo — the most powerful young wizard in the Russo family
  • IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: No official score (Disney Channel TV movie)
  • Original air date: August 28, 2009 on Disney Channel
  • Watch on: Disney+

Plot: The Russo family — three wizard siblings competing for the family’s single permanent wizard power — takes a vacation to the Caribbean. When Alex selfishly uses magic to make a wish that accidentally erases her parents’ memories and threatens to undo her family’s entire existence, she and her brother Justin must compete in an ancient wizard competition to reverse the damage. The film significantly deepens the mythology of the Wizards of Waverly Place universe and gives Gomez’s Alex Russo some of her most complex dramatic moments in the franchise.

Why it matters: The Wizards of Waverly Place movie earned the highest ratings of any Disney Channel Original Movie since High School Musical, watched by over 11 million viewers. The film — and the series that surrounds it — is where Gomez’s core acting instincts were formed. Alex Russo’s sarcasm, intelligence and deep family loyalty are the foundations of virtually every performance Gomez has given since. The 2025 revival series on Disney Channel and Disney+ has reignited enormous interest in this film specifically, with millions of new viewers discovering it through the streaming platform.


10. Princess Protection Program (2009) — The Disney Classic

  • Director: Allison Liddi-Brown
  • Cast: Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato
  • Gomez plays: Carter Mason — a regular girl who helps protect an undercover princess
  • IMDb Rating: 5.8/10
  • Original air date: June 26, 2009 on Disney Channel
  • Watch on: Disney+

Plot: Princess Rosalinda (Demi Lovato) is forced to go into hiding after a military coup threatens her kingdom. She is relocated to the United States by the Princess Protection Program and placed with the family of Agent Mason (Tom Verica), where she must pretend to be a normal teenager under the name Rosie. His daughter Carter (Selena Gomez) — an unsocial, self-sufficient girl who has never quite fit in — reluctantly becomes Rosie’s guide to ordinary teenage life. As Carter helps Rosie navigate high school, the two form an unexpected friendship that changes both of them.

Why it completes the list: Princess Protection Program represents Gomez and Demi Lovato at the peak of their early Disney partnership — two of the network’s biggest stars combining for what was one of the most-watched Disney Channel Original Movies of 2009. The film’s 8.5 million viewers on its premiere night reflected the genuine excitement around both actresses at the time. While it is the most straightforwardly simple film on this ranking, it represents an important and beloved chapter in Gomez’s career that millions of viewers in India and globally grew up watching. The real-life friendship between Gomez and Lovato — which has had its well-documented ups and downs over the years — gives the film a nostalgic dimension that time has only deepened.


📺 Bonus: Only Murders in the Building — Her Best Work Overall

Any honest discussion of Selena Gomez best movies and performances must include Only Murders in the Building — even though it is a television series rather than a film. The Hulu original mystery comedy, in which she stars alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short, has run for multiple critically acclaimed seasons and earned Gomez a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a TV Comedy Series at the 2025 ceremony — making her a rare double Golden Globe nominee at the same ceremony (with Emilia Pérez in the film categories simultaneously).

According to Collider’s comprehensive ranking by IMDb score, Only Murders in the Building is the highest-rated project of her entire career. Her character Mabel Mora — sardonic, independent, emotionally guarded — has been praised by critics as the finest sustained dramatic performance of Gomez’s career to date.

Only Murders in the Building is available on Disney+ Hotstar in India.


📊 Selena Gomez: Career Milestones at a Glance

Year Milestone
2002 Acting debut on Barney & Friends
2007 Breakthrough role as Alex Russo — Wizards of Waverly Place (Disney)
2008 Music career launch with Selena Gomez & the Scene
2009 Princess Protection Program and WOWP: The Movie — Disney peak era
2012 Spring Breakers — Adult film debut, critical turning point
2015 The Big Short cameo — Oscar-winning film ensemble
2016 Billboard Woman of the Year. The Fundamentals of Caring at Sundance
2017 Kidney transplant from Francia Raisa
2020 Rare Beauty launch — named Startup of the Year, WWD Beauty Inc Awards
2021 Only Murders in the Building premiere — Hulu
2024 Emilia Pérez — Cannes Best Actress, 13 Oscar nominations, Golden Globe nomination
2024 Rare Beauty named Most Influential Company by TIME. Estimated worth $2 billion
2025 Double Golden Globe nominee (film + TV simultaneously)

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

What is Selena Gomez’s best movie?

By critical consensus and awards recognition, Emilia Pérez (2024) is Selena Gomez’s best movie — a Spanish-language musical crime film that received 13 Academy Award nominations (a record for a non-English language film), 10 Golden Globe nominations and won the Best Actress award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival as part of the female ensemble. For audiences looking for a more personal dramatic performance, The Fundamentals of Caring (2016) (IMDb 7.4) is widely considered her finest purely dramatic film role.

Did Selena Gomez get an Oscar nomination?

Selena Gomez was not personally nominated for an Academy Award for Emilia Pérez — the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress went to her co-star Zoe Saldaña. However, Gomez received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the same film at the 2025 ceremony, competed alongside Ariana Grande (Wicked) and was part of the female ensemble that won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award collectively. The film itself received a record 13 Oscar nominations.

Where can I watch Emilia Pérez?

Emilia Pérez is streaming on Netflix worldwide, including Netflix India. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles available. An English-dubbed version is also available on Netflix. It is approximately 2 hours 10 minutes long.

What language does Selena Gomez speak in Emilia Pérez?

Selena Gomez speaks Spanish throughout Emilia Pérez. Gomez is third-generation Mexican American and learned Spanish specifically for the role. This was widely noted as a significant commitment to the film’s authenticity and has been praised by critics as one of the more impressive aspects of her performance.

What are the best Selena Gomez movies for family watching?

The best Selena Gomez movies for family viewing are Wizards of Waverly Place: The MoviePrincess Protection ProgramMonte Carlo and Ramona and Beezus — all available on Disney+. The Hotel Transylvania franchise (Netflix) is ideal for families with young children. Avoid Spring Breakers and Emilia Pérez for family viewing — both contain adult content.


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📚 Sources & References

Last Updated: March 14, 2026. All IMDb ratings verified as of March 2026. Box office figures from Box Office Mojo and Wikipedia. Awards information sourced from Golden Globes official site, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.