Every year, I get excited for January 1st, not just to start a new year in my screenwriting life but to see all the works that have entered the public domain that can inspire my next project.
You can view an extensive list via Duke Law, but we’ll recap the biggest titles in it below.
Let’s dive in.
Public Domain 2025
Without further ado, here’s a list of some of the most popular things hitting the public domain.
Books and Plays
- William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
- Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
- Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon (as serialized in Black Mask magazine)
- John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (Steinbeck’s first novel)
- Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica
- Oliver La Farge, Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story
- Patrick Hamilton, Rope
- Arthur Wesley Wheen, the first English translation of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- Agatha Christie, Seven Dials Mystery
- Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That
- E. B. White and James Thurber, Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (only the original German version, Briefe an einen jungen Dichter)
- Walter Lippmann, A Preface to Morals
- Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee), The Roman Hat Mystery
Film
- A dozen more Mickey Mouse animations (including Mickey’s first talking appearance in The Karnival Kid)
- The Cocoanuts, directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley (the first Marx Brothers feature film)
- The Broadway Melody, directed by Harry Beaumont (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture)
- The Hollywood Revue of 1929, directed by Charles Reisner (featuring the song “Singin’ in the Rain”)
- The Skeleton Dance, directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks (the first Silly Symphony short from Disney)
- Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock’s first sound film)
- Hallelujah, directed by King Vidor (one of the first film from a major studio with an all African-American cast)
- The Wild Party, directed by Dorothy Arzner (Clara Bow’s first “talkie”)
- Welcome Danger, directed by Clyde Bruckman and Malcolm St. Clair (the first full-sound comedy starring Harold Lloyd)
- On With the Show, directed by Alan Crosland (the first all-talking, all-color, feature-length film)
- Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora), directed by G.W. Pabst
- Show Boat, directed by Harry A. Pollard (adaptation of the novel and musical)
- The Black Watch, directed by John Ford (Ford’s first sound film)
- Spite Marriage, directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton (Keaton’s final silent feature)
- Say It with Songs, directed by Lloyd Bacon (follow-up to The Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool)
- Dynamite, directed by Cecil B. DeMille (DeMille’s first sound film)
- Gold Diggers of Broadway, directed Roy Del Ruth
Musical Compositions
- Singin’ in the Rain, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
- Ain’t Misbehavin’, lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. (“Fats”) Waller & Harry Brooks (from the musical Hot Chocolates)
- An American in Paris, George Gershwin
- Boléro, Maurice Ravel
- (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue, lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. “Fats” Waller & Harry Brooks (a song about racial injustice from the musical Hot Chocolates)
- Tiptoe Through the Tulips, lyrics by Alfred Dubin, music by Joseph Burke
- Happy Days Are Here Again, lyrics by Jack Yellen, music by Milton Ager (the theme song for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 presidential campaign)
- What Is This Thing Called Love?, by Cole Porter (from Porter’s musical Wake Up and Dream)
- Am I Blue?, lyrics by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst
- You Were Meant for Me, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
- Honey, lyrics and music by Seymour Simons, Haven Gillespie, and Richard A. Whiting
- Waiting for a Train, lyrics and music by Jimmie Rodgers
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
