1928

No Best Picture winner was released in 1928 — these films were Oscar-nominated, but that award went to films from neighboring years. The formula's pick:

Should have won The Passion of Joan of Arc poster

The Passion of Joan of Arc

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The full slate

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #1

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Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer · Maria Falconetti · Eugène Silvain · André Berley · Maurice Schutz

IMDb 8.1 (68,456 votes) · TMDB 8.0

A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.

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The Circus (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Charlie Chaplin · Charlie Chaplin · Al Ernest Garcia · Merna Kennedy · Harry Crocker

IMDb 8.1 (38,635 votes) · TMDB 7.928

Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.

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The Cameraman (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Edward Sedgwick · Buster Keaton · Marceline Day · Harold Goodwin · Sidney Bracey

IMDb 8.0 (14,591 votes) · TMDB 7.8

A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.

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Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Charles Reisner · Buster Keaton · Tom McGuire · Ernest Torrence · Tom Lewis

IMDb 7.8 (17,577 votes) · TMDB 7.6

The just-out-of-college, effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was a child.

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The Crowd (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. King Vidor · Eleanor Boardman · James Murray · Bert Roach · Estelle Clark

IMDb 8.0 (10,033 votes) · TMDB 7.575

John, an ambitious but undisciplined New York City office worker, meets and marries Mary. They start a family, struggle to cope with marital stress, financial setbacks, and tragedy, all while lost amid the anonymous, pitiless throngs of the big city.

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The Wind (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Victor Sjöström · Lillian Gish · Lars Hanson · Montagu Love · Dorothy Cumming

IMDb 8.0 (7,826 votes) · TMDB 7.341

When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin, Beverly, she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife, Cora. Soon tensions in the family and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors leave Letty increasingly disturbed.

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The Man Who Laughs (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Paul Leni · Conrad Veidt · Mary Philbin · Cesare Gravina · Brandon Hurst

IMDb 7.6 (9,231 votes) · TMDB 7.33

When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.

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The Last Command (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Josef von Sternberg · Emil Jannings · Evelyn Brent · William Powell · Jack Raymond

IMDb 7.9 (5,083 votes) · TMDB 7.3

A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.

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Lonesome (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Pál Fejős · Barbara Kent · Glenn Tryon · Fay Holderness · Gusztáv Pártos

IMDb 7.7 (2,973 votes) · TMDB 7.494

Two lonely people in the big city meet and enjoy the thrills of an amusement park, only to lose each other in the crowd after spending a great day together. Will they ever see each other again?

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#10

Speedy (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Ted Wilde · Harold Lloyd · Ann Christy · Bert Woodruff · Babe Ruth

IMDb 7.6 (4,804 votes) · TMDB 7.297

A hapless young man living in New York City rallies to save his girlfriend's grandfather's horse-drawn trolley, the last in the city, from being put out of business by a railroad company.

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#11

Spies (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Fritz Lang · Rudolf Klein-Rogge · Gerda Maurus · Lien Deyers · Louis Ralph

IMDb 7.5 (4,337 votes) · TMDB 7.341

The mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.

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#12

Show People (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. King Vidor · Marion Davies · William Haines · Dell Henderson · Paul Ralli

IMDb 7.6 (4,247 votes) · TMDB 7.2

Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.

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#13

October (Ten Days that Shook the World) poster

October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Grigori Aleksandrov · Vladimir Popov · Vasili Nikandrov · Layaschenko · Boris Livanov

IMDb 7.4 (9,026 votes) · TMDB 6.9

Sergei M. Eisenstein's docu-drama about the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Made ten years after the events and edited in Eisenstein's 'Soviet Montage' style, it re-enacts in celebratory terms several key scenes from the revolution.

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#14

The Docks of New York (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Josef von Sternberg · George Bancroft · Betty Compson · Olga Baclanova · Clyde Cook

IMDb 7.5 (5,517 votes) · TMDB 6.9

A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.

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#15

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Jean Epstein · Jean Debucourt · Marguerite Gance · Charles Lamy · Fournez-Goffard

IMDb 7.2 (5,058 votes) · TMDB 7.053

Convinced that his family is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hellbent on stopping his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from expanding. When her fiancé Allan arrives at the crumbling estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless—even deadly—lengths to keep them apart.

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#16

The Racket (1928)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Lewis Milestone · Thomas Meighan · Louis Wolheim · Marie Prevost · G. Pat Collins

IMDb 6.5 (1,878 votes) · TMDB 6.548

A renegade police captain sets out to catch a sadistic mob boss. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.

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#17

In Old Arizona (1928)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Irving Cummings · Warner Baxter · Edmund Lowe · Dorothy Burgess · Henry Armetta

IMDb 5.5 (1,526 votes) · TMDB 5.5

Army Sergeant Mickey Dunn sets out in pursuit of the Cisco Kid, a notorious if kind-hearted and charismatic bandit of the Old West. The Kid spends much of his loot on Tonia, the woman he loves, not realizing that she is being unfaithful to him in his absence. Soon, with her oblivious paramour off plying his trade, Tonia falls in with Dunn, drawn by the allure of a substantial reward for the Kid's capture -- dead or alive. Together, they concoct a plan to ambush and do away with the Cisco Kid once and for all.

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How scoring works: films are ranked by a composite of a weighted (Bayesian) IMDb rating — the same method as the IMDb Top 250, so a high score from few voters can't outrank a strong score from many — blended with TMDB. Box office is a tiebreaker and a badge, never part of the score. Raw IMDb ratings and vote counts are shown on each card.