After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for Vicky Cristina Barcelona the Spanish actress has entered the elite class of movie stars. We've known all along that she is an actress of considerable talent first and a pretty face second, but as a former dancer, she's not afraid to let her conflagrant beauty and physical presence lead her performances.

Penelope Cruz featured in Vogue Spain wears a Dolce&Gabbana FW2013 Baroque Collection white lace dress

As an actress she has a natural gift for comedy and she's far more versatile than you would believe and can do intense, sultry, innocent, menacing, crazy all in the same scene. Swide chooses some of her career highlights.

Jamon Jamon

Her breakthough role was an surreal mix of food metaphor and love story. Her first film with now husband Javier Bardem.

Abre Los Ojos

The original version of 'Vanilla Sky' saw suck up the screen time. Even though she played a secondary role, she was the centre of the picture, so much so, that she appeared in the remake with Tom Cruise.

Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All about My Mother)

Pedro Almoldovar is a personal friend, but no one can glean the performances from Cruz tha he does. An intimate understanding between the two sees him consistently get the best from her.

Blow

This was the film that really announced her talent to the english-speaking world. Her crack-pot drug addict character is frightening and a joy to watch in every scene.

Volver

Again Almoldovar transformed Cruz, the scene where she cleans up the mess after killing her husband is a classic.

Manolete

Not the best known of her films but a super-cool and confident performance she's her upstage fellow Oscar winner Adrien Brody.

Vicky Christina Barcelona

Her off the wall portrayal of an unstable Spanish painter got her the Oscar and the respect she so richly deserves.

Elegy

Stars with another Oscar winner, Ben Kingsley and completely holds her own in a very sweet and affecting film based on the Philip Roth novel, The Dying Animal.

Broken Embraces

The Cruz-Almoldovar partnership can do no wrong.

by Hugo Mc Cafferty

Credits

Vogue Spain

Photographer: Tom Munro

Styling: Belén Antolín

Hair: Cebado

Make-Up: Pablo Iglesias