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Top Films by Year (1930-1934)

**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

1930

Rank Title Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 All Quiet on the Western Front** Lewis Milestone 225
2 The Blue Angel Josef von Sternberg 643
3 L'Âge d'or Luis Buñuel 665
4 Earth Aleksandr Dovzhenko 841
5 Morocco Josef von Sternberg 1642
6 Animal Crackers Victor Heerman 2104
7 People on Sunday Curt and Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, and Fred Zinnemann 2392

1931

Rank Title Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 City Lights Charles Chaplin 46
2 M Fritz Lang 69
3 Frankenstein James Whale 152
4 Dracula Tod Browning 530
5 The Public Enemy William A. Wellman 753
6 Little Caesar Mervyn LeRoy 983
7 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Rouben Mamoulian 1134
8 Tabu F.W. Murnau 1667
9 La Chienne Jean Renoir 2082
10 Le Million René Clair 2102
11 À Nous la Liberté René Clair 2136
12 Monkey Business Norman Z. McLeod 2234
13 Maedchen in Uniform Leontine Sagan 2800

1932

Rank Title Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 Freaks Tod Browning 235
2 Trouble in Paradise Ernst Lubitsch 381
3 Scarface Howard Hawks 534
4 Vampyr Carl Theodor Dreyer 611
5 Love Me Tonight Rouben Mamoulian 845
6 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang* Mervyn LeRoy 1100
7 Grand Hotel** Edmund Goulding 1274
8 I Was Born, But... Yasujirô Ozu 1392
9 The Mummy Karl Freund 1527
10 Horse Feathers Norman Z. McLeod 1533
11 Boudu Saved from Drowning Jean Renoir 1628
12 Island of Lost Souls Erle C. Kenton 1638
13 The Blood of a Poet Jean Cocteau 1659
14 The Music Box James Parrott 1691
15 Shanghai Express* Josef von Sternberg 1741
16 The Old Dark House James Whale 1797
17 One Hour with You* Ernst Lubitsch 2399
18 Blonde Venus Josef von Sternberg 2785

1933

Rank Title Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 King Kong Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack 51
2 Duck Soup Leo McCarey 85
3 42nd Street* Lloyd Bacon 664
4 The Invisible Man James Whale 743
5 Gold Diggers of 1933 Mervyn LeRoy 981
6 Sons of the Desert William A. Seiter 1066
7 Zero for Conduct Jean Vigo 1071
8 Queen Christina Rouben Mamoulian 1462
9 The Testament of Dr. Mabuse Fritz Lang 1521
10 Footlight Parade Lloyd Bacon 1584
11 Land without Bread Luis Buñuel 1602
12 She Done Him Wrong* Lowell Sherman 2069
13 Little Women* George Cukor 2096
14 Dinner at Eight George Cukor 2226
15 Ecstasy Gustav Machatý 2410
16 The Private Life of Henry VIII* Alexander Korda 2445
17 Design for Living Ernst Lubitsch 2451
18 Baby Face Alfred E. Green 2551
19 Liebelei Max Ophüls 2746

1934

Rank Title Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 It Happened One Night** Frank Capra 92
2 L'Atalante Jean Vigo 219
3 The Thin Man* W.S. Van Dyke 568
4 The Scarlet Empress Josef von Sternberg 913
5 It's a Gift Norman Z. McLeod 1068
6 The Black Cat Edgar G. Ulmer 1518
7 Twentieth Century Howard Hawks 1709
8 Man of Aran Robert J. Flaherty 1980
9 The Merry Widow Ernst Lubitsch 2030
10 The Gay Divorcee* Mark Sandrich 2348
11 The Man Who Knew Too Much Alfred Hitchcock 2674

**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

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This page was last modified on April 20, 2020