1930 in film

Events

Top grossing films

1. Tom Sawyer
2. Whoopee!
3. Common Clay
4. Check and Double Check
5. Feet First
6. All Quiet on the Western Front
7. The Big House (film)
8. Min and Bill
9. Song O' My Heart
10. Anna Christie
11. Raffles
12. The Indians are Coming
13. Romance
14. Madam Satan
15. Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel)
16. L'Age d'Or
17. Journey's End
18. Outward Bound
19. Lightnin'
20. So This is London
21. The Rogue Song
22. The Devil to Pay
23. With Byrd at the South Pole
24. The Lady of Scandal
25. Holiday
26. Abraham Lincoln
27. The Man from Blankley's
28. Old English
29. The King of Jazz
30. Just Imagine
31. Animal Crackers
32. Kismet
33. Monte Carlo
34. The Royal Family of Broadway
35. The Big Trail
36. Laughter
37. New Moon
38. The Laughing Lady
39. Men Without Women
40. Liliom
41. Tol'able David
42. Scotland Yard
43. A Lady's Morals
44. Sous les Toits de Paris
45. The Texan
46. Seven Days' Leave

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front - Universal Studios
• Best Actress: Norma Shearer - The Divorcee
• Best Actor: George Arliss - Disraeli

Films released in 1930

• Alraune
• L'Âge d'Or, directed by Luis Buñuel
• All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone
• Animal Crackers, starring the Marx Brothers
• Anna Christie, starring Greta Garbo
• Big Boy, a musical comedy with Al Jolson
• The Big House, starring Chester Morris and Wallace Beery
• The Big Trail, starring John Wayne
• The Big Pond
• Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel), starring Marlene Dietrich
• The Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d'un Poete), directed by Jean Cocteau
• The Bride of the Regiment (1930)
• Bright Lights (1930), a musical comedy in Technicolor
• Call of the Flesh, a musical romance with Technicolor sequences
• Chasing Rainbows, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Children of Pleasure, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• The Cuckoos, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Danger Lights, starring Louis Wolheim
• The Divorcee, starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery, director: Robert Z. Leonard
• Dixiana, a lavish musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Elstree Calling, a British revue with color sequences
• Feet First, a comedy starring Harold Lloyd
• Floradora Girl, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Follow Thru (1930), a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Free and Easy, starring Buster Keaton, Anita Page, Trixie Friganza, and Robert Montgomery
• General Crack, a drama with Technicolor sequences starring John Barrymore
• Good News, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Golden Dawn (1930), a musical operetta entirely in Technicolor
• Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes, starring Jean Harlow
• Hold Everything (1930), a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Journey's End, by George Pearson (see Journey's End)
• King of Jazz (1930), a revue with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra entirely in Technicolor
• Leathernecking, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Lord Byron of Broadway, a musical drama with Technicolor sequences
• Lottery Bride, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• The Life of the Party (1930), musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• Mamba (1930), first talking drama entirely in Technicolor
• Madam Satan, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
• Mammy, a musical comedy starring Al Jolson with Technicolor sequences
• Melody Man, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Min and Bill
• Morocco, starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich
• Murder!, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• New Movietone Follies of 1930, a musical revue with Technicolor sequences
• No No Nanette, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Not So Dumb
• Paramount on Parade, an all-star revue with Technicolor sequences
• Peacock Alley, a musical drama with Technicolor sequences
• Puttin' on the Ritz, directed by Edward Sloman, with Technicolor sequences
• Raffles, featuring Ronald Colman and Kay Francis
• The Rogue Song (1930), a musical operetta entirely in Technicolor
• Showgirl in Hollywood, a musical comedy with Technicolor sequences
• Son of the Gods, a drama with Technicolor sequences starring Richard Barthelmess
• Song of the Flame (1930), a musical operetta entirely in Technicolor
• Song of the West (1930), a musical drama entirely in Technicolor
• Sunny, a musical comedy with Marilyn Miller
• Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• True to the Navy, starring Clara Bow and Fredric March
• Under a Texas Moon (1930), a musical comedy entirely in Technicolor
• The Vagabond King (1930), a musical drama entirely in Technicolor
• Whoopee! (1930), a musical comedy in Technicolor with Eddie Cantor

Serials

• Across the World with Mr & Mrs Martin Johnson
• Hunting Tigers in India
• The Indians Are Coming
• The Jade Box
• The Lightning Express
• The Lone Defender, starring Rin Tin Tin
• Terry of the Times
• The Voice from the Sky

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)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927-1938)
• Mickey Mouse (1928-1953)
• Silly Symphonies (1929-1939)
• Screen Songs (1929-1938)
• Talkartoons (1929-1932)
• Looney Tunes (1930-1969)
• Flip the Frog (1930-1933)
• Terrytoons (1930-1964)
• Toby the Pup (1930-1931)

Births

• January 3 - Robert Loggia, actor
• January 10 - Roy Edward Disney, film executive
• January 11 - Rod Taylor, Australian actor
• January 13 - Frances Sternhagen, actress
• January 30 - Gene Hackman, actor
• February 27 - Joanne Woodward, actress
• March 24 - Steve McQueen, actor
• April 28 - Carolyn Jones, actress (+1983)
• May 31 - Clint Eastwood, actor, director, producer
• June 16 - Vilmos Zsigmond, cinematographer
• August 25 - Sir Sean Connery, actor
• October 1 - Sir Richard Harris, actor
• December 3 - Jean-Luc Godard, director
• December 11 - Jean-Louis Trintignant, actor

Film debuts

• Laurence Olivier
• Buster Crabbe
• Rex Harrison
• Ethel Merman

Deaths

• January 31 - Dorothy Seastrom, American actress
• February 20 - Mabel Normand, American actress
• July 7 - Arthur Conan Doyle, British author and creator of Sherlock Holmes.
• August 26 - Lon Chaney, American actor
• September 15 - Milton Sills, American actor
• December 15 - Diane Ellis, American actress