The Orphanage

J. A. Bayona's The Orphanage (Spanish: El orfanato) opened in Spain in October 2007 and grossed over $80 million worldwide on a budget of approximately €4 million. It won the Goya for Best New Director (Bayona's first feature) at the Spanish national film awards in 2008 and was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 61st BAFTAs the same year.

The film was produced by Guillermo del Toro through his Estudios Picasso and Telecinco partnership, del Toro had been mentoring Bayona for years and recommended the screenplay by Sergio G. Sánchez (Bayona's former school friend) for production financing. The Bayona-del Toro relationship would continue across multiple subsequent Spanish-language horror productions of the 2010s. Bayona has been outspoken in interviews that del Toro's involvement was essential to securing distribution for what was at the time an unusually large investment in a Spanish-language genre debut.

The lead, Belén Rueda, plays the central role; the supporting cast includes Fernando Cayo, Geraldine Chaplin, Mabel Rivera and the breakthrough child performance of Roger Príncep. Cinematography is by Óscar Faura, who would shoot Bayona's later The Impossible, A Monster Calls and Society of the Snow. The score is by Fernando Velázquez. The film established Bayona as the major figure in Spanish-language genre filmmaking of his generation; he would go on to direct the international productions The Impossible, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Society of the Snow.