1929 in film

Events

• January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.
• May 16 - The first Academy Awards, or Oscars, are distributed
• July 13, The first all color talkie (in Technicolor), On With the Show is released by Warner. Bros. who the led in a new color revolution, just as they had ushered in that of the talkies.
• Hallelujah!, first Hollywood film to contain an entire black cast.
• Atlantic (1929 film) is the first sound on film movie made in Germany. It is also the first Titanic movie with sound.
• The Broadway Melody is released by MGM and becomes the first major musical film of the sound era, sparking a host of imitators as well as a series of Broadway Melody films that would run until 1940.

Top grossing films

1. Gold Diggers of Broadway
2. The Broadway Melody(#1 for year 1929 alone)
3. Sunny Side Up
4. Welcome Danger
5. The Cock-Eyed World
6. Rio Rita
7. Hollywood Revue of 1929
8. In Old Arizona
9. Coquette
10. Syncopation
11. Disraeli
12. The Taming of the Shrew
13. The Single Standards
14. Wild Orchids
15. Paris
16. The Kiss
17. The Mysterious Island
18. Pandora's Box
19. On With the Show
20. The Love Parade
21. The Four Feathers
22. Sally
23. Redskin
24. The Pagan
25. Marriage Playground
26. Say It With Songs
27. They Had to See Paris
28. Navy Blues
29. Their Own Desire
30. Divine Lady
31. The Trespasser
32. Madame X
33. The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
34. Bulldog Drummond

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: The Broadway Melody - MGM
• Best Actor: Warner Baxter - In Old Arizona
• Best Actor: George Arliss - Disraeli
• Best Actress: Mary Pickford - Coquette

Note: Prior to 1933, awards were not based on calendar years, which is how there are 2 'Best Actor' awards for 1929 films.

Films released in 1929

• An Andalusian Dog (Un chien andalou), a short film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí
• Applause, starring Helen Morgan
• Asphalt
• Atlantic, the first sound on film made in Germany and the first sound Titanic movie
• The Awful Truth
• Big Business, a Laurel and Hardy short
• Big Time
• Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Broadway, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• The Broadway Melody, musical comedy starring Charles King, Anita Page and Bessie Love
• Bulldog Drummond, starring Ronald Colman
• The Canary Murder Case
• The Clue of the New Pin
• The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx Brothers
• Coquette, starring Mary Pickford, Johnny Mack Brown, Matt Moore. Directed by Sam Taylor
• Dance of Life, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• The Desert Song, a musical operetta with Technicolor sequences
• Devil May Care, a musical romance with Technicolor sequences
• Disraeli, starring George Arliss
• Dynamite
• The Flying Fleet, starring Ramon Navarro, Ralph Graves, Anita Page, and Edward Nugent
• Footlights and Fools, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Fox Movietone Follies, a musical revue with Multicolor sequences
• Glorifying the American Girl, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Gold Diggers of Broadway, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• The Great Gabbo, a musical comedy with Multicolor sequences
• Hallelujah!, directed by King Vidor
• Hearts in Dixie, starring Clarence Muse, drama/musical
• His First Command, a musical drama with Technicolor sequences
• The Hole in the Wall
• The Hollywood Revue of 1929, a showcase of talent under contract to MGM
• In Old Arizona, starring Warner Baxter
• It's A Great Life, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• The Iron Mask, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• The Kiss, starring Greta Garbo and Conrad Nagel
• The Lady Lies, starring Walter Huston and Claudette Colbert
• The Love Parade, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald
• ''Lucky Star
• Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom), a documentary
• The Manxman, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Married In Hollywood, a musical romance with Multicolor sequences
• The Mysterious Island, starring Lionel Barrymore
• On With the Show, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks
• Paris (1929 film), a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Piccadilly, a melodrama starring Anna May Wong and Gilda Gray
• Pointed Heels, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Queen Kelly, starring Gloria Swanson (this film was never finished because producers balked at releasing a silent film in what was quickly becoming a sound film market)
• Redskin, a drama with Technicolor sequences
• Red Hot Rhythm, a musical comedy with Multicolor sequences
• The Rescue
• Rio Rita, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• The River
• Sally, a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Show Boat, a part-talkie based not on the famous musical, but on the Edna Ferber novel that inspired it
• The Show of Shows, a musical revue with Technicolor sequences
• St. Louis Blues, starring Bessie Smith
• The Skeleton Dance, a Walt Disney animated short
• Spite Marriage, a Buster Keaton film
• Street Girl, RKO's first "official" film
• Sunny Side Up, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• This Thing Called Love, a musical romance with Technicolor sequences
• Thunder, directed by William Nigh, starring Lon Chaney, Sr. and Phyllis Haver
• The Virginian, starring Gary Cooper
• Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond), directed by Fritz Lang

Serials

• The Ace of Scotland Yard
• The Black Book
• The Diamond Master
• The Fatal Warning
• The Fire Detective
• The King of the Kongo, starring Jacqueline Logan
• The Pirate of Panama
• Police Reporter
• Queen of the Northwoods
• Tarzan the Tiger, starring Frank Merrill and Natalie Kingston

Short film series

• Buster Keaton (1917-1941)
• Our Gang (1922-1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921-1943)

Animated short film series

• Felix the Cat (1919-1930)
• Aesop's Film Fables (1921-1933)
• Krazy Kat (1925-1940)
• Inkwell Imps (1927-1929)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927-1938)
• Mickey Mouse (1928-1953)
• Silly Symphonies (1929-1939)
• Screen Songs (1929-1938)
• Talkartoons (1929-1932)

Births

• January 3 - Sergio Leone, director (+ 1989)
• January 31 - Jean Simmons, actress
• February 10 - Jerry Goldsmith, composer (+ 2004)
• May 4 - Audrey Hepburn, actress
• August 23 - Vera Miles, actress
• September 2 - Hal Ashby, director
• November 12 - Grace Kelly, actress
• December 6 – Alain Tanner, Swiss film director
• December 9 - John Cassavetes, actor, director

Film Debuts

• Judy Garland
• Betty Grable
• Paulette Goddard
• Ginger Rogers

Deaths

• January 5 - Marc McDermott
• February 18 - William Russell, American actor
• May 9 - Fred C. Truesdell, stage & film actor(b. 1870)
• July 2 – Gladys Brockwell, American actress
• July 3 - Dustin Farnum, American stage & silent screen star.
• August 2 - Mae Costello, American actress
• October 3 - Jeanne Eagels, American actress
• October 31 - Norman Trevor, actor, Olympic athlete (b.1877)