This is a list of films that were released in 1928. Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.
January 6 - The long-awaited Charlie Chaplin comedy The Circus premieres at the Strand Theatre in New York City.
July 6 – Lights of New York (starring Helene Costello) is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film. Previous releases Don Juan and The Jazz Singer had used a synchronized soundtrack with sound effects and music, with The Jazz Singer having a few incidental lines spoken by Al Jolson.
September 19 – The Singing Fool, Warner Brothers' follow-up to The Jazz Singer, is released. While still only a partial-talkie (sequences still featured intertitles), 66 minutes of the film's 105 minute running time feature dialogue or songs, making it the longest talking motion picture yet. (Lights of New York runs a total of 57 minutes.) It is the highest-grossing film of the year, becomes Warner Brothers' highest-grossing film for the next 13 years, and is the most financially successful film of Al Jolson's career.
November 10 – At the beginning of White Shadows in the South Seas, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's mascot Leo the Lion roars for the very first time, giving voice to one of the most popular American film logos.
November 18 – Disney's Steamboat Willie premieres, marking the official introduction of Mickey Mouse. This animated short is the first film to include a soundtrack, completely created in post production, including sound effects, music, and dialogue.
December 25 – In Old Arizona, released by Fox Films, is the first sound-on-film feature-length talkie, utilizing the Movietone process. Previously, feature-length talkies used the less-reliable Vitaphone sound-on-disc process. It is also the first Western talkie, and the first sound film primarily shot outdoors.
Best Actor: Emil Jannings for The Last Command and the 1927 movie The Way of All Flesh
Best Actress: Janet Gaynor for Street Angel and the 1927 movies Seventh Heaven and Sunrise
Note: Prior to 1933, awards were not based on calendar years, which is why there is no 'Best Picture' for a 1928 film.
U.S.A. unless stated
Accident (Polizeibericht Überfall) – (Germany)
Across to Singapore, starring Ramón Novarro and Joan Crawford
The Actress directed by Sidney Franklin; starring Norma Shearer
Adam's Apple, starring Monty Banks – (GB)
Alraune, starring Brigitte Helm and Paul Wegener – (Germany)
L'Argent (Money), starring Pierre Alcover and Brigitte Helm – (France)
The Awakening, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Vilma Bánky and Louis Wolheim
Balaclava, starring Cyril McLaglen, Benita Hume – (GB)
Beau Sabreur, directed by John Waters, starring Gary Cooper and Evelyn Brent
Beggars of Life, directed by William Wellman, starring Wallace Beery and Louise Brooks
The Big City, starring Lon Chaney, Sr.
The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple (Huo shao hong lian si) – (China) – Released in 18 parts as the film runs for a total of 27 hours
The Cameraman, a Buster Keaton film
The Cardboard Lover, directed by Robert Z. Leonard; starring Marion Davies, Nils Asther, and Jetta Goudal
Champagne, directed by Alfred Hitchcock – (GB)
The Circus, starring, directed and written by Charles Chaplin
The Constant Nymph, starring Ivor Novello – (GB)
The Cossacks starring John Gilbert, Renée Adorée and Ernest Torrence
The Crowd, directed by King Vidor
Dawn, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Sybil Thorndike – (Britain)
The Devious Path (Abwege), directed by G.W. Pabst – (Germany)
The Divine Woman, starring Greta Garbo
The Docks of New York, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring George Bancroft, Betty Compson and Olga Baclanova
Easy Virtue, directed by Alfred Hitchcock – (GB)
The Fall of the House of Usher, directed by James Sibley Watson
The Fall of the House of Usher (La Chute de la maison Usher) – (France)
The Farmer's Wife, directed by Alfred Hitchcock – (GB)
Feel My Pulse, starring Bebe Daniels, Richard Arlen and William Powell
The First Born, starring Miles Mander, Madeleine Carroll – (GB)
Four Sons, directed by John Ford
The Gallant Hussar, directed by Géza von Bolváry, starring Ivor Novello, Evelyn Holt (Britain/Germany)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Ruth Taylor and Alice White, subtitles written by Anita Loos
A Girl in Every Port, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong, Louise Brooks
The Godless Girl, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
The Guns of Loos, directed by Sinclair Hill, starring Madeleine Carroll (Britain)
Hangman's House, directed by John Ford, starring Victor McLaglen and June Collyer
His House in Order, starring Tallulah Bankhead (Britain)
Homecoming (Heimkehr) – (Germany)
The House on Trubnaya (Дом на Трубной), directed by Boris Barnet – (U.S.S.R.)
Interference, Paramount's first ever all talking movie
The Italian Straw Hat (Un chapeau de paille d'Italie), directed by René Clair – (France)
Jujiro – (Japan)
Kurama Tengu – (Japan)
Ladies of the Mob, starring Clara Bow, Richard Arlen and Helen Lynch
The Last Command, directed by Joseph von Sternberg, starring Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent and William Powell
Laugh, Clown, Laugh, starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young
Lights of New York
A Little Bit of Fluff, starring Sydney Chaplin and Betty Balfour – (GB)
Lonesome, directed by Paul Fejos – (a silent and a sound version)
The Man Who Laughs, directed by Paul Leni, starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin
Maria Marten, starring Trilby Clark and Warwick Ward (Britain)
The Matinee Idol, directed by Frank Capra, starring Bessie Love and Johnnie Walker.
The Midnight Taxi
Mother Machree, directed by John Ford
Moulin Rouge directed by Ewald André Dupont – (GB)
The Mysterious Lady, starring Greta Garbo and Conrad Nagel
Noah's Ark, starring George O'Brien
The Noose, starring Richard Barthelmess
Number 17, directed by Géza von Bolváry, starring Guy Newall and Lien Deyers – (GB/Germany)
October: Ten Days That Shook the World (Oktyabr': Desyat' dney kotorye potryasli mir), directed by Sergei Eisenstein – (U.S.S.R.)
On Trial, sound film, starring Pauline Frederick and Bert Lytell
Our Dancing Daughters, starring Joan Crawford and Johnny Mack Brown
The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, starring Maria Falconetti – (France)
The Patsy, directed by King Vidor, starring Marion Davies and Marie Dressler
Piccadilly, starring Anna May Wong, Gilda Gray and Cyril Ritchard (Britain)
The Power of the Press, directed by Frank Capra, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr
Ramona, starring Dolores del Río and Warner Baxter
The Red Dance, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Dolores del Río and Charles Farrell
Red Hair, starring Clara Bow
The Ringer directed by Arthur Maude – (Britain)
The Road to Ruin
Rose-Marie, starring James Murray and Joan Crawford
Sadie Thompson, starring Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore
The Seashell and the Clergyman (La Coquille et le clergyman) – (France)
Sex in Chains (Geschlecht in Fesseln), starring and directed by William Dieterle – (Germany)
Show People, directed by King Vidor, starring Marion Davies and William Haines
The Singing Fool, starring Al Jolson and Betty Bronson
Sins of the Fathers starring Emil Jannings and Ruth Chatterton
Skyscraper, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring William Boyd, Alan Hale, Sue Carol and Alberta Vaughn
The Smart Set, starring William Haines, Jack Holt, and Alice Day
A South Sea Bubble, starring Ivor Novello, Benita Hume (Britain)
Speedy, starring Harold Lloyd
Spione (Spies), directed by Fritz Lang – (Germany)
Steamboat Bill Jr., a Buster Keaton film
Steamboat Willie, a Walt Disney Mickey Mouse short
Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingis-Khana), starring Valéry Inkijinoff – (U.S.S.R.)
Street Angel, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell
Sweeney Todd, starring Moore Marriott – (GB)
Take Me Home, a lost film directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Bebe Daniels
Tempest, starring John Barrymore, Camilla Horn and George Fawcett
The Terror, starring May McAvoy, Edward Everett Horton, and Louise Fazenda
Tesha, directed by Victor Saville, starring María Corda, Jameson Thomas – (GB)
Thérèse Raquin, directed by Jacques Feyder – (France)
Three Sinners starring Pola Negri, Warner Baxter and Olga Baclanova
Tillie's Punctured Romance, starring W. C. Fields, Louise Fazenda and Chester Conklin
Tommy Atkins, starring Lillian Hall-Davis (Britain)
Toni starring Jack Buchanan – (GB)
The Trail of '98, starring Delores del Rio
The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Matheson Lang (Britain)
Two Tars, starring Laurel and Hardy
Underground, directed by Anthony Asquith – (GB)
The Viking – the first feature-length Technicolor film
Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast), a dadaist animated short – (Germany)
The Vortex, starring Ivor Novello – (GB)
We Faw Down, starring Laurel and Hardy
The Wedding March, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim with Fay Wray and ZaSu Pitts
West of Zanzibar, starring Lon Chaney and Lionel Barrymore
West Point, starring William Haines and Joan Crawford
What a Night!, directed by A. Edward Sutherland; starring Bebe Daniels
While the City Sleeps, directed by Jack Conway; starring Lon Chaney
White Shadows in the South Seas, starring Monte Blue and Raquel Torres
The Wind, directed by Victor Sjostrom, starring Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson
A Woman of Affairs, starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert
Zvenigora, directed by Alexander Dovzhenko – (U.S.S.R.)
Buster Keaton (1917–1941)
Our Gang (1922–1944)
Laurel and Hardy (1921–1943)
Felix the Cat (1919–1936)
Aesop's Film Fables (1921–1933)
Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
Inkwell Imps (1927–1929)
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Harem Scarem
Neck 'n' Neck
The Ol' Swimmin' Hole
Africa Before Dark
Rival Romeos
Bright Lights
Oh, What a Knight
Sagebrush Sadie
Ride'em Plow Boy
Sky Scrappers
Ozzie of the Mounted
Hungry Hoboes
Poor Papa
The Fox Chase
Tall Timber
Sleigh Bells
Hot Dog
Newslaffs (1927-1928)
Mickey Mouse
Plane Crazy
Gallopin' Gaucho
Steamboat Willie
The Barn Dance
January 7 – William Peter Blatty, screenwriter (d. 2017)
January 23 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress, singer, screenwriter and director
January 26 – Roger Vadim, director, screenwriter, actor (d. 2000)
February 1 – Stuart Whitman, film & television actor
February 8 – Jack Larson, actor (died 2015)
February 11 – Conrad Janis, actor
February 29 – Tempest Storm, burlesque performer, actress
March 1 – Jacques Rivette, film director (d. 2016)
March 19 – Patrick McGoohan, actor (died 2009)
March 24 – Vanessa Brown (d. 1999)
April 7 – James Garner, actor (d. 2014)
April 23 – Shirley Temple, actress (d. 2014)
May 7 – Georgi Rusev, Bulgarian actor (died 2011)
June 12 – Vic Damone, singer, entertainer
June 13 – Nikola Todev, Bulgarian actor (died 1991)
June 19 – Nancy Marchand, actress (died 2000)
June 20 – Martin Landau, actor
June 22 – Ralph Waite, actor (d. 2014)
July 14 – Nancy Olson, actress
July 26 – Stanley Kubrick, director (died 1999)
August 6 – Andy Warhol, artist, director (died 1987)
August 11 – Arlene Dahl, actress
August 15 – Nicolas Roeg, director
August 16 – Ann Blyth, actress
August 31 – James Coburn, actor (died 2002)
September 17 – Roddy McDowall, actor (died 1998)
September 19 – Adam West, actor
October 1 – George Peppard, actor (died 1994)
October 2 – George McFarland, actor (died 1993)
November 3 – Wanda Hendrix, actress (died 1981)
November 13
Helena Carroll, Scottish-American actress (died 2013)
Ralph Foody, American actor (died 1999)
December 9 – Dick Van Patten, actor (died 2015)
December 25 – Dick Miller, actor
January 2 – Emily Stevens, American stage & film actress
January 3 - Claude France, German film actress
January 25 – Charles Gorman, American stage and screen actor
February 22 - Rudolph J. Bergquist American cinematographer
March 5 – Lidia Quaranta, Italian actress
March 13 - Poppy Wyndham, British actress and heiress; lost at sea
April 22 – Frank Currier, American director, stage & silent film actor
June 22 – George Siegmann, American silent film actor
June 24 – Holbrook Blinn, American stage & silent film actor
July 20 – Scott Sidney, American film director
July 21
Ellen Terry, British stage actress of the Victorian and Edwardian times and later a silent film actress
Ward Crane, American film actor
August 10 – Rex Cherryman, American actor
August 17 – Frank Urson, American film director
August 26 - Colin Campbell, British-born film director
October 8 – Larry Semon, American film comedian
November 10 - Anita Berber, German film actress
November 19 - Jeanne Bérangère, French stage and film actress
December 14 – Theodore Roberts, American film actor
December 25 – Fred Thomson, American film actor
Humphrey Bogart - The Dancing Town
Madeleine Carroll - The Guns of Loos
Jean Gabin - Ohé! Les valises
Jean Harlow - Moran of the Marines
Miriam Hopkins - The Home Girl
Charles Laughton - The Tonic
Anna Magnani - Scampolo
Randolph Scott - Sharp Shooters
Mickey Mouse
