# Sunrise (1927 film)
**Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans** is a 1927 American silent romantic drama directed by the German filmmaker [F. W. Murnau](https://www.edgepedia.org/f-w-murnau) for the Fox Film Corporation, starring George O'Brien as [The Man](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-man), Janet Gaynor as The Wife, and Margaret Livingston as The Woman from the City. It tells of a farmer seduced by a city woman who urges him to drown his wife, and of the couple's reconciliation during a day in the metropolis. The film won three awards at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 and is now ranked among the greatest films ever made.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/12490) • [2](https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | F. W. Murnau (his American debut); produced by William Fox for Fox Film Corporation[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/12490) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/afi-top-100/115751/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927) |
| Source | Carl Mayer's scenario, loosely based on Hermann Sudermann's short story *Die Reise nach Tilsit* (1917)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/12490) |
| Release | New York premiere 23 September 1927; general release 4 November 1927[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/12490) |
| Sound | Shot silent, released with a synchronized Movietone score and sound effects by Hugo Riesenfeld[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Sunrise-A-Song-of-Two-Humans_Fischer.pdf) |
| Academy Awards | Unique and Artistic Production; Best Cinematography (Charles Rosher, Karl Struss); Best Actress (Janet Gaynor, shared with *7th Heaven* and *Street Angel*); nominated for Best Art Direction[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018455/awards/) |
| Box office | A commercial flop that failed to recoup its costs[6](https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/bfs/sunrise22.pdf) |
| Standing | #11 on the 2022 BFI *Sight and Sound* Greatest Films of All Time poll; National Film Registry, 1989[7](https://filmpreserve.org/restoration/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans/) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018455/awards/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
A vacationing city woman enters a rural lakeside community and seduces a farmer, persuading him to drown his wife so they can escape together. On a boat trip to the city he relents, and the couple rediscover their love amid the pleasures of the metropolis. On the return journey a storm capsizes the boat, and the city woman and the townsfolk begin to suspect foul play.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/afi-top-100/115751/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927) • [10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sunrise) The central characters are unnamed, which contemporary and later critics read as giving the fable a universal reach.[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sunrise-1927/)
## Production
The project began when William Fox invited Murnau, already celebrated in Germany for *Nosferatu* (1922), *The Last Laugh* (1924), and *[Faust](https://www.edgepedia.org/faust-1926-film)* (1926), to come to Hollywood and make a film of his own choosing with almost total creative control, and to bring a handful of German artists with him. Murnau was one of several European directors lured by American studios in the 1920s to raise the artistic prestige of Hollywood production.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/afi-top-100/115751/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927) • [2](https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927)
Murnau and screenwriter Carl Mayer transformed Sudermann's naturalistic fable into a modern-day fairy tale. The production was expensive and the director's perfectionism tested the studio's patience; art director Rochus Gliese recalled that the producer stayed in New York for nine months to undo the damage done by overspending the budget. In one episode Murnau refused to shoot until sets and stands dried after rain, sending 3,000 extras home for three days at great cost to Fox.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/afi-top-100/115751/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927)
The village scenes were filmed at Lake Arrowhead, and an artificial city, one of the most costly sets yet produced, was built at Fox Hills in West Los Angeles, later called Movietone City.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/12490) • [8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/846a7d3b-1aee-5183-a318-903dc129dd9a/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans)
## Style and sound
The film carries the visual language of 1920s German Expressionism, with its exaggerated sets and lighting, into Hollywood: carefully constructed montage sequences, double exposures, pictorial lighting, and elaborate tracking shots, including the celebrated sequence in which the unnamed Man and Wife arrive in the city by tram. Critics credit the cinematographers Charles Rosher and Karl Struss with pioneering camerawork that injected European modernism into classical American cinema.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/846a7d3b-1aee-5183-a318-903dc129dd9a/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans) • [2](https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927)
Although silent, Sunrise was released with a recorded soundtrack. Fox had invested in the Movietone sound-on-film system, which recorded sound optically on the film itself, and the film was presented with Hugo Riesenfeld's synchronized musical score and sound effects in theaters wired for sound, while silent prints circulated in Europe and elsewhere. It is described as being among the first feature-length films released with an optical soundtrack.[16](https://cayugamuseum.org/sunrise-vs-the-jazz-singer/) One noted moment in the score substitutes a [French horn](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-horn) for a man's voice as he calls out for his wife, whom he fears has drowned. The film thus stands both at the apogee of silent cinema and as an early foray into the sound era.[4](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Sunrise-A-Song-of-Two-Humans_Fischer.pdf) • [9](https://silentfilm.org/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1/) • [2](https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927)
## Reception and awards
Sunrise was a critical success but a commercial failure, overshadowed in part by *The Jazz Singer*, released two weeks later, and it failed to recoup its costs.[6](https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/bfs/sunrise22.pdf) • [12](https://www.fingerlakesfilmtrail.org/from-silents-to-talking-pictures) At the first Academy Awards, honoring films made between 1 August 1927 and 1 August 1928, it won Unique and Artistic Production while *[Wings](https://www.edgepedia.org/wings-1927-film)* took the corresponding Outstanding Picture award; the dual Best Picture categories existed only at that first ceremony. Gaynor's Best Actress award covered her work in *Sunrise*, *7th Heaven* (1927), and *[Street Angel](https://www.edgepedia.org/street-angel-1928-film)* (1928), making her the first recipient of the award. The film also received the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1929.[13](https://time.com/5362713/academy-awards-new-film-category-history/) • [14](https://www.tcm.com/articles/467188/critics-corner-sunrise)
Fox subsequently restrained Murnau's spending, and in February 1929, disillusioned with Hollywood, he broke his contract with the studio.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/afi-top-100/115751/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927) • [6](https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/bfs/sunrise22.pdf)
## Legacy and preservation
The original 35mm camera negative of the American version was destroyed in the Fox film storage vault fire at Little Ferry, New Jersey, on 9 July 1937. Prints survive in several archives, including a 1927 nitrate positive of the European version with Czech intertitles in the Czech national archive and a 1936 diacetate positive of the American Movietone version at the [Museum of Modern Art](https://www.edgepedia.org/museum-of-modern-art).[15](https://w.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/Sunrise1927.html) The film entered the [National Film Registry](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-registry) in 1989 and has ranked highly in critics' polls, placing in the top ten of the 2002 *Sight and Sound* critics' poll and at #11 in the 2022 edition. A restoration involving the San Francisco Film Preserve, the BFI, MoMA, and other archives was underway using two surviving reels of a 1927 nitrate print held by the George Eastman Museum as reference.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018455/awards/) • [14](https://www.tcm.com/articles/467188/critics-corner-sunrise) • [7](https://filmpreserve.org/restoration/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans/)
## References
1. [Sunrise (1927), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/12490)
2. [Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism](https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927)
3. [Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), TCM / AFI Top 100](https://www.tcm.com/articles/afi-top-100/115751/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1927)
4. [Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, National Film Preservation Board essay (Fischer)](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/Sunrise-A-Song-of-Two-Humans_Fischer.pdf)
5. [Sunrise (1927) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018455/awards/)
6. [Buffalo Film Seminars, Sunrise (28 March 2006)](https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/bfs/sunrise22.pdf)
7. [Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, San Francisco Film Preserve](https://filmpreserve.org/restoration/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans/)
8. [Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/846a7d3b-1aee-5183-a318-903dc129dd9a/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans)
9. [Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, San Francisco Silent Film Festival](https://silentfilm.org/sunrise-a-song-of-two-humans-1/)
10. [Sunrise (1927), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sunrise)
11. [Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sunrise-1927/)
12. [From Silents to Talking Pictures, Finger Lakes Film Trail](https://www.fingerlakesfilmtrail.org/from-silents-to-talking-pictures)
13. [The First Academy Awards Had Two Best Picture Categories, Too, TIME](https://time.com/5362713/academy-awards-new-film-category-history/)
14. [Critics' Corner: Sunrise, TCM](https://www.tcm.com/articles/467188/critics-corner-sunrise)
15. [Sunrise (1927), Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era](https://w.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/Sunrise1927.html)
16. [Sunrise vs. The Jazz Singer - Cayuga Museum of History and Art](https://cayugamuseum.org/sunrise-vs-the-jazz-singer/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Early and silent cinema › Silent feature films › Released 1927 to 2012*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license