1957

Academy winner The Bridge on the River Kwai poster

The Bridge on the River Kwai

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Should have won 12 Angry Men poster

12 Angry Men

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The Academy's ballot

🏆The Bridge on the River Kwai#578.85 🎬12 Angry Men#188.19 🎬Witness for the Prosecution#381.31 🎬Peyton Place#1964.97 🎬Sayonara#2164.7

Your #1 was 12 Angry Men (#1).

The full slate

12 Angry Men (1957)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #5

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Dir. Sidney Lumet · Martin Balsam · John Fiedler · Lee J. Cobb · E.G. Marshall

IMDb 9.0 (987,078 votes) · TMDB 8.562

The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

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Paths of Glory (1957)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great

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Dir. Stanley Kubrick · Kirk Douglas · Ralph Meeker · Adolphe Menjou · George Macready

IMDb 8.4 (239,532 votes) · TMDB 8.253

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

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Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #3

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Dir. Billy Wilder · Tyrone Power · Marlene Dietrich · Charles Laughton · Elsa Lanchester

IMDb 8.4 (162,581 votes) · TMDB 8.205

An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.

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The Seventh Seal (1957)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great

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Dir. Ingmar Bergman · Gunnar Björnstrand · Bengt Ekerot · Nils Poppe · Max von Sydow

IMDb 8.1 (215,581 votes) · TMDB 8.152

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

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

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Dir. David Lean · William Holden · Alec Guinness · Jack Hawkins · Sessue Hayakawa

IMDb 8.1 (249,070 votes) · TMDB 7.8

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

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Wild Strawberries (1957)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great

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Dir. Ingmar Bergman · Victor Sjöström · Bibi Andersson · Ingrid Thulin · Gunnar Björnstrand

IMDb 8.1 (124,781 votes) · TMDB 8.076

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

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Nights of Cabiria (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Federico Fellini · Giulietta Masina · François Périer · Franca Marzi · Amedeo Nazzari

IMDb 8.1 (57,183 votes) · TMDB 8.0

Rome, 1957. A woman, Cabiria, is robbed and left to drown by her boyfriend, Giorgio. Rescued, she resumes her life and tries her best to find happiness in a cynical world. Even when she thinks her struggles are over and she has found happiness and contentment, things may not be what they seem.

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Throne of Blood (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Akira Kurosawa · Toshirō Mifune · Isuzu Yamada · Takashi Shimura · Akira Kubo

IMDb 8.0 (60,350 votes) · TMDB 7.9

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

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The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov · Tatyana Samoylova · Aleksey Batalov · Vasili Merkuryev · Aleksandr Shvorin

IMDb 8.3 (22,680 votes) · TMDB 7.9

Veronika and Boris come together in Moscow shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight. Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully. After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of a cousin with his own intentions.

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#10

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Alexander Mackendrick · Burt Lancaster · Tony Curtis · Susan Harrison · Martin Milner

IMDb 8.0 (40,198 votes) · TMDB 7.6

New York City newspaper writer J.J. Hunsecker holds considerable sway over public opinion with his Broadway column, but one thing that he can't control is his younger sister, Susan, who is in a relationship with aspiring jazz guitarist Steve Dallas. Hunsecker strongly disapproves of the romance and recruits publicist Sidney Falco to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method.

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#11

A Face in the Crowd (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Elia Kazan · Andy Griffith · Patricia Neal · Anthony Franciosa · Walter Matthau

IMDb 8.1 (19,245 votes) · TMDB 7.6

The rise of a raucous hayseed named Lonesome Rhodes from itinerant Ozark guitar picker to local media rabble-rouser to TV superstar and political king-maker. Marcia Jeffries is the innocent Sarah Lawrence girl who discovers the great man in a back-country jail and is the first to fall under his spell.

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#12

An Affair to Remember (1957)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #7

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Dir. Leo McCarey · Cary Grant · Deborah Kerr · Richard Denning · Neva Patterson

IMDb 7.4 (35,802 votes) · TMDB 7.4

A couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?

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#13

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Jack Arnold · Grant Williams · Randy Stuart · April Kent · Paul Langton

IMDb 7.6 (22,093 votes) · TMDB 7.5

A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.

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#14

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Delmer Daves · Glenn Ford · Van Heflin · Felicia Farr · Leora Dana

IMDb 7.6 (23,901 votes) · TMDB 7.273

Dan Evans, a small time farmer, is hired to escort Ben Wade, a dangerous outlaw, to Yuma. As Evans and Wade wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, Wade's gang is racing to free him.

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#15

The Joker is Wild (1957)

💰 Box office #8

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Dir. Charles Vidor · Frank Sinatra · Mitzi Gaynor · Jeanne Crain · Eddie Albert

IMDb 7.0 (1,592 votes) · TMDB 8.1

A Prohibition-era nightclub crooner has his career is cut short when his throat is slashed by a mob boss.

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#16

Mayabazar (1957)

⭐ Top-rated

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Dir. Kadri Venkata Reddy · N.T. Rama Rao · S. V. Ranga Rao · Savitri · Nageshwara Rao Akkineni

IMDb 9.0 (6,962 votes) · TMDB 8.017

Balarama promises Subhadra that he'll marry his daughter to her son. But when the Pandavas lose their kingdom to the Kauravas, Balarama breaks his promise.

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#17

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

💰 Box office #2

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Dir. John Sturges · Burt Lancaster · Kirk Douglas · Jo Van Fleet · Rhonda Fleming

IMDb 7.1 (18,949 votes) · TMDB 7.0

Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

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#18

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

💰 Box office #4

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Dir. Terence Fisher · Peter Cushing · Hazel Court · Robert Urquhart · Christopher Lee

IMDb 7.0 (14,832 votes) · TMDB 6.791

Baron Victor Frankenstein has discovered life's secret and unleashed a blood-curdling chain of events resulting from his creation: a cursed creature with a horrid face — and a tendency to kill.

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#19

Peyton Place (1957)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Mark Robson · Lana Turner · Hope Lange · Lee Philips · Lloyd Nolan

IMDb 7.2 (7,257 votes) · TMDB 6.767

In the outwardly respectable New England community of Peyton Place, shopkeeper Constance McKenzie tries to make up for a past indiscretion -- which resulted in her illegitimate daughter Allison -- by adopting a chaste, prudish attitude towards all things sexual. In spite of herself, Constance can't help but be attracted to handsome new teacher Michael Rossi. Meanwhile, the restless Allison, who'd like to be as footloose and fancy-free as the town's "fast girl" Betty Anderson, falls sincerely in love with mixed-up mama's boy Norman Page.

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#20

The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

💰 Box office #9

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Dir. Billy Wilder · James Stewart · Murray Hamilton · Patricia Smith · Bartlett Robinson

IMDb 7.1 (9,314 votes) · TMDB 6.7

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.

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#21

Sayonara (1957)

🎬 Nominee

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Dir. Joshua Logan · Marlon Brando · Patricia Owens · James Garner · Martha Scott

IMDb 7.0 (8,919 votes) · TMDB 6.707

Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver is reassigned to a Japanese air base and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese people. The issue is compounded because a number of the soldiers become romantically involved with Japanese women, in defiance of US military policy. Ordinarily, a by-the-book officer, Gruver must take a position when a buddy of his, an enlisted man, Joe Kelly, falls in love with a Japanese woman, Katsumi, and marries her. Gruver risks his position by serving as best man at the wedding ceremony.

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#22

Jailhouse Rock (1957)

💰 Box office #6

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Dir. Richard Thorpe · Elvis Presley · Judy Tyler · Mickey Shaughnessy · Vaughn Taylor

IMDb 6.5 (10,772 votes) · TMDB 6.309

After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.

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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.