When songs enter the public domain, they don’t just get older, they get new lives. For this year’s virtual Public Domain Day celebration, musician Stephanie Woodford gave three newly public-domain classics a fresh voice by writing new lyrics, reimagined for today.
Partygoers were treated to live performances of Georgia on My Mind and Dream a Little Dream of Me, while a third reinterpretation, On the Sunny Side of the Street, lives on as a special recording. Together, these performances show what the public domain makes possible: creativity that’s playful, personal, and very much alive.
Dream a Little Dream of Me
Music composed by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, with lyrics by Gus Kahn. (1930)
Georgia on My Mind
Music composed by Hoagy Carmichael, with lyrics by Stuart Gorrell. (1930)
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Music composed by Jimmy McHugh, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. (1930)
Stephanie Woodford is a pop, soul, and RnB singer/songwriter and performer. She is a graduate of both the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division and also St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School. She has a degree in music from City College of San Francisco.
We’re thrilled to unveil the creativity of our top three winners and four honorable mentions in this year’s Public Domain Day Film Remix Contest. These remarkable films not only reimagined and transformed public domain works but also demonstrated the boundless potential of remixing creative works to create something new.
This year’s contest received more than 270 submissions from creators across 35 U.S. states, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, and 28 countries worldwide. All of the submissions can be viewed in a new collection at the Internet Archive: 2026 Public Domain Day Film Remix Contest collection.
Our judging panel was led by Catherine Kavanaugh of Screen360.tv with jurors Peter Stein, Rick Prelinger, Amber McKinney, and Brewster Kahle.
Watch the winning entries & honorable mentions below. View the full list of finalists.
FIRST PLACE: “Rhapsody, Reimagined” by Andrea Hale
About the film: Rhapsody, Reimagined reconfigures imagery from King of Jazz (1930) through collage, digital animation, and repetition set to a reimagined version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Andrea Hale
Judge’s Comment: Andrea Hale’s sharp description: “Treating image as modular rather than linear, the film foregrounds systems of synchronization, reproduction, and spectacle,” signaled to the judges that we were in for a surprise. The stripped down remix of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue lifted us gently into a 1930s office scene in deco sherbert colors that deconstructed and rebuilt through a mind-blowing kaleidoscope of dancers, musicians, and other images from John Murray Anderson’s “ The King of Jazz”….finally landing us back on a moon…A fabulously fun use of archival footage – we all agreed, it was an aesthetic triumph! Congratulations to Andrea Hale
Andrea Hale is an artist working in animation and video editing. Her work emphasizes rhythm, repetition, and texture, using collage to recontextualize culturally established works by treating them as raw material rather than finished objects.
SECOND PLACE: “Battle Lines” by Jen Zhao and Aaron Sharp
About the film: The friendship and rivalry between two painters: Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.
Selected Judge’s Comment: This is a neatly made little film that used 22 archival works and doesn’t quite escape the burden of telling the story of the feud between Mondrian and van Doesburg. It’s a perfectly pitched, tongue-in-cheek short doc(mock)umentary tracking their feud over the diagonal line. Masterful editing of inspired sources including Composition II in Red, Blue And Yellow by Mondrian (1930) and Jean Cocteau’s “Le Sang Un Poet” with costumes by Coco Chanel. It’s deft narration winks at parody yet unfolds the story in a memorable cadence to its tender end and sends viewers to research further. Congratulations to Jen Zhao and Aaron Sharp
Jen Zhao
Jen Zhao is a Canadian filmmaker, producer, and actor who is interested in autofictional works that explore reality, genre, and the experience of making art itself. She works with an ethos of “scrappiness”, creating films with whatever resources are on hand or easily accessible, which is exemplified in her short film Finding Nathan Fielder (With Jen Zhao). Jen has released work with Penguin Random House, Spotify, and Cosmic Soup Productions, and received her MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA.
Aaron Sharp
Aaron Sharp is a screenwriter and actor from Los Angeles. He has an MFA from UCLA TFT and loves acronyms. He is currently working on 8 Votes, a true-crime podcast that investigates how his best friend received only eight votes in his high school presidential election, and whether foul play was involved.
THIRD PLACE: “Farina & The Perpetual Shine Machine” by Ralphie Wilson
About the film: Allen “Farina” Hoskins hosts an interrogative look into the depiction of black life during the year 1930 in this short film, unease follows.
Ralphie Wilson
Selected Judge’s Comment: This film highlights terrific sourcing and intercutting of both uplifting and disturbing depictions of African and African American film imagery from 1930. Not at all gratuitous in its presentation of images from governmental, industrial and educational archives, the familiar comic expression of Our Gang’s Farina, Allen Hoskins, softens the disquieting impact and prompts further inquiry. The Hall-Johnson Choir’s spiritual directed by Broadway performer Juanita Hall (later known for “South Pacific”) elevated imagery and soundscore, further highlighting the conundrum in our fraught history. As director Ralphie Wilson stated in his description, “Unease follows.” Thank you and congratulations, Ralphie Wilson
Ralphie Wilson is a street photographer, editor and independent filmmaker from St. Louis, MO. He has a love for archive work and capturing The Black Experience throughout all mediums.
HONORABLE MENTION: “The Boots on the Western Front” by Thomas Biamonte
Thomas Biamonte
About the film:An anti-war short film that showcases the horror of modern warfare and its toll on the human psyche as seen in the 1930 Best Picture winner at the 3rd annual Academy Awards All Quiet on the Western Front. The film is paired with a 1915 reading of Rudyard Kipling’s 1903 Anti-War poem Boots.
Thomas Biamonte is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Hartford studying acting. He is a huge fan of the public domain and the internet archive and he is honored to be chosen as an Honorable Mention.
HONORABLE MENTION: “How’s the Play Going?” by Noel David Taylor
Noel David Taylor
About the film:An absurd comedy with the main character lost in time, disjointed in settings and confused by their surroundings. Sort of like that thing that happens when you realize you haven’t been paying attention to the film you’re watching.
Noel David Taylor is a filmmaker known for their alchemy of homemade nightmare comedy and an absurdist sense of tragedy.
HONORABLE MENTION: “Dream A Little Dream Of Me Reimagined” by Talissa Mehringer
About the film: A new short music-film remix celebrating the dynamism of 30s film choreography, the opulence of the sets, and the versatile talent of the featured stars.
Talissa Mehringer is a German/Mexican multimedia artist and filmmaker residing in Berlin. Her work springs from a desire to bring to life dreams and experiences filtered through the subconscious.
HONORABLE MENTION: “The Reality Engineer” by Konstantin
About the film:A comedy film that tells the story of a scientist who wants to help humanity live better by correcting reality itself. However, every good intention only makes the situation worse.
Explore the works that have entered the public domain in 2026, below.
On January 1, 2026, we celebrate published works from 1930 and published sound recordings from 1925 entering the public domain! Their arrival marks another chapter in our shared cultural heritage: the freedom to breathe new life into overlooked works, remix enduring classics, and circulate the oddities we discover in thrift stores, family attics, and forgotten corners of the internet.
For the first time since the 1970s, works from a new decade have entered the public domain after their long copyright term. This milestone builds on the momentum that began when the public domain reopened in 2019. The works of 1930 reflect a world grappling with enormous change: the early years of the Great Depression, anxieties about banks and tariffs (sound familiar?), and a cultural landscape still humming with the last heartbeats of the 1920s.
The Jazz Age and flapper style persisted through Nancy Drew’s illustrations and Betty Boop’s design; Buster Keaton’s first talkie signaled the twilight of the silent era; and the Gershwins continued to shake-up musical culture with “I Got Rhythm” and “Embraceable You”. The Interwar period left its mark, too—the first filmed adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front won Best Picture. Audiences sought escapism in the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers, in 19 new Disney cartoons, and in the gender-bending glamour of the pre-Hays Code film Morocco.
Culture was everywhere—and now, it belongs to everyone.
Musical Compositions
1930 saw the introduction of many standards into the Great American Songbook including the wistful “Dream A Little Dream of Me”, “Georgia on My Mind”, and “It Happened in Monterey”. The latter of those songs being a cultural curiosity as the spelling reflects the California city while the song is about the Mexican city. Hoagy Charmichael’s loving refrain for the state of Georgia with Georgia on My Mind would become the state’s official song in 1979.
Even inspiration for later 20th Century works bubbled up with “Beyond the Blue Horizon” which would serve as inspiration for the original Star Trek theme. At the Internet Archive the song reminds us of the blinking blue lights that help to power the 1 Trillion webpages saved.
Check out this list of more musical compositions from the year.
On the Sunny Side of the Street lyrics by Dorothy Fields, music by Jimmy McHugh
Just A Gigolo (first English translation), original German lyrics by Julius Brammer, English translation by Irving Caesar, music by Leonello Casucci
If we thought that detectives had a field day in 1929 then we just hadn’t seen what 1930 had to offer yet. Miss Marple, Nancy Drew, Harriet Vane, and Sam Spade all featured in iconic works of the year respectively: The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, The Secret of the Old Clock, Strong Poison, and the published novel edition of The Maltese Falcon. Nancy Drew appeared in four different stories this year giving readers and creatives plenty of stories and mysteries to dig into. But be careful and make sure you’re reading the original editions from 1930 and not the rewrites from the late 1950s. Luckily the Archive has the 1930 editions ready for you here in our collections!
While detective fiction dominated we also got bold works from other authors including As I Lay Dyingby William Faulkner which blends multiple perspectives and bold narrative experimentation to chronicle a family’s turbulent journey to honor their mother’s final request. Groundwork was also laid for another Best Picture winner with Edna Farber’s Cimarron. Children had works to entertain themselves with Dick and Jane’s introduction in Elson Basic Readers and a 1930 retelling of the folktale, The Little Engine That Could.
Dive into Archive’s literary collection to unearth more classics from 1930.
Film
A favorite film of this author is the King of Jazz, astunning Technicolor musical revue featuring Paul Whiteman, Bing Crosby, and elaborate song and dance numbers.
It wasn’t the only musical of the year as the Marx Brothers adapted their stage show Animal Crackersto the big screen in a film of the same name. Their comedic antics would absurdly riff on the culture of the time with Groucho directly parodying a monologue from Eugene O’Neill’s 1928 play, Strange Interlude.
While past the heyday of his filmic output, Buster Keaton was still on the scene with his first talkie, Free and Easy, entering the public domain this year. If you’ve never heard his voice before then it might surprise you! Another iconic comedy is Soup to Nuts, a vehicle for Rube Goldberg to share crazy contraptions on screen. It was also the debut of actors that would form The Three Stooges group a few years later.
In another reminder of how copyright expires on a yearly basis we’re talking about All Quiet on the Western Front for the third year in a row, but this time as the adaptation that won the 3rd Academy Award for Best Picture. The film is a sobering reminder and depiction of the horrors of war, and showcased how audiences in 1930 were still reeling from the first World War. It is also a very engaging and well rounded film that is still great cinema nearly 100 years later.
Even more icons made headway in 1930 with Alfred Hitchcock’s Murder!, John Wayne’s first leading role in The Big Trail, and Greta Garbo’s moving performance in Anna Christie.
Our film remix contest is ongoing until January 7, 2026, so please upload your submissions! Read more here.
Comics and Cartoons
Only a year removed from the 1920s, culture didn’t change overnight. Debuting on September 8, 1930, the Blondie comic strip by Chic Young was steeped in flapper style. Originally named Blondie Boopadoop, she drew on the singing persona of Helen Kane—who also inspired aspects of Betty Boop. For more on Betty Boop, read Jennifer Jenkins’ write-up at Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
Mickey Mouse expanded from the screen to the page with 303 daily comic strips, sending him on western adventures, robber-chasing escapades, and more.
In 2026, we now have another 19 Disney shorts (9 Mickey, 10 Silly Symphonies) to help fill out this creative world. The Silly Symphonies rounded out their celebration of the seasons by following up 1929’s Springtime with Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
Meanwhile, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit—Mickey’s older brother—continued his prolific output even after Disney lost the rights to him in 1928. Under Walter Lantz, Oswald starred in 24 shorts this year, nearly 2.5 times Mickey’s total. Two of these, My Pal Paul and Africa, cross-promoted the film King of Jazz, proving that cinematic tie-ins have long been part of studio strategy.
Recap
The arrival of these works into the public domain is a reminder of our shared cultural heritage—of the stories, sounds, and images that shaped earlier generations and now become fair game for creative reuse. Many of these works have already been reimagined under copyright: Nancy Drew’s rewrites, the many adaptations of All Quiet on the Western Front, Mickey Mouse’s leap into comics, and more.
Now, in 2026, these works pass into a space where everyone can study them, remix them, preserve them, and carry them forward.
The public domain belongs to all of us. Let’s explore it together.
UPDATE January 21, 2026: Contest winners have been announced. Congratulations to the winners, honorable mentions & finalists, and special thanks to everyone who submitted a film this year!
We invite filmmakers, artists, and creatives of all skill levels and backgrounds to celebrate Public Domain Day, by creating and uploading a 2-3 minute short film to the Internet Archive.
This contest offers a chance to explore and reimagine the creative treasures entering the public domain, especially works from 1930 that entered the public domain on January 1—classic literature, early sound films, cartoons, music, and art. Participants are encouraged to use materials from the Internet Archive’s collections to craft unique films that breathe new life into these cultural gems. Browse newly opened public domain materials.
Top entries will be awarded prizes up to $1,500, with winners announced during our virtual and in-person Public Domain Day Celebrations on January 21, 2026. All submissions will be featured in a special Public Domain Day Collection on archive.org and highlighted in a January 2026 blog post.
Join us in this creative celebration of cultural heritage and timeless art!
Note: If you have a resource from 1930 that is not available on archive.org, you may upload it and then use it in your submission. (Here is how to do that).
Your submission must have a soundtrack. It can be your own voiceover or performance of a public domain musical composition, or you may use public domain or CC0 sound recordings from sources like Openverse and the Free Music Archive.
Note: Sound recordings have special status under Copyright Law, so it’s important to note that while musical compositions from 1930 will be entering the public domain, the sound recordings of those works are not. Sound recordings published in 1925 will enter the public domain.
Mix and Mash content however you like, but note that ALL of your sources must be from the public domain. They do not all have to be from 1930. Remember, U.S. government works are public domain no matter when they are published. So feel free to use those NASA images! You may include your own original work if you put a CC0 license on it.
We are celebrating the public domain as a triumph of human creativity, and we want your submission to reflect that spirit. The contest honors the imagination, craft, and originality that people bring to remixing culture, so your final film should be a human-made work of art. If you use AI tools in your submission, please explain how they are used.
Add a personal touch, make it yours!
Keep the videos light hearted and fun! (It is a celebration after all!)
Submission Deadline
All submissions must be in by 11:59pm PST, January 7, 2026.
To help get you started here are some materials that will become part of the public domain on January 1, 2026.See examples.
Books: The first four original editions of the Nancy Drew books, including The Secret of the Old Clock. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Dick and Jane made their first appearance in the Elson Basic Readers. The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper choo-chooed onto the scene.
Comics: The iconic Blondie by Chic Young first debuted in 1930. Mickey Mouse made his first appearance in comics in 1930 featuring multiple serialized storylines! Even more Popeye stories including those featuring the Sea Hag!
Films: The King of Jazz, a two-strip Technicolor musical revue featuring Bing Crosby, elaborate sets, and Vaudevillian routines. Morocco, a melodrama featuring Marlene Dietriech pushing the boundaries of pre-Hays Code Hollywood. All Quiet on the Western Front, the Best Picture winning adaptation of the novel. Dizzy Dishes, the first appearance of Betty Boop in film. The Picnic, a Disney short featuring the debut of Rover, the dog that would become Pluto a year later.
Musical Compositions: It Happened in Monterey, a song of longing for romance past. But Not for Me, a lament about love songs. Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight, a carefree celebration. Dream A Little Dream of Me, a wishful request of longing. Beyond the Blue Horizon, a song that invokes our own blinking servers that made 1 trillion webpages possible. Georgia on My Mind, a song that became the official state song of Georgia in 1979. You can record your own versions of any of these compositions and reuse them in your film.
Sound Recordings (1925):A Cup Of Coffee, A Sandwich & You, a fox trot rendition by the Carleton Terrace Orchestra. St. Louis Blues by Bessie Smith ft. Louis Armstrong on the cornet. I’ll See You in My Dreams by the Isham Jones Orchestra, the top selling record of 1925. Manhattan by Ben Selvin Orchestra as The Knickerbockers, a jazzy evocation of the city.
Prizes
1st prize: $1500
2nd prize: $1000
3rd prize: $500
Judges will be looking for videos that are fun, interesting and use public domain materials, especially those from 1930. Submissions should highlight the value of having cultural materials that can be reused, remixed, and re-contextualized for a new day. Winners will be announced and previewed at our virtual event, then shown on the “big screen” and celebrated in person at the in-person Public Domain Day party in San Francisco. Winners’ pieces will be purchased with the prize money, and viewable on the Internet Archive under a Creative Commons license.
Queline Meadows’s inspired mix of movies, images, music and text woven into a subtle and emotionally affecting video expressing a strong sense of nostalgia and the irretrievable passage of time.
A rich montage of sound and picture, focusing on images that model beauty, fitness, posture, proper behavior, and the laws of physics to produce an unpredictable result.
This trippy piece creates a visual experience unlike others with animation, bold colors, and unique framing to draw the viewer in and invoke experimental filmmaking of later decades with older materials.
For further reference, check out past entrants from 2025.
Rhapsody in Blue stands as an iconic piece of American music with riveting orchestration, and a cultural footprint that reflects the modernity of the early 20th century. Beyond its artistic merits, the composition has provided numerous cultural touchstones, including its usage as the theme for United Airlines commercials, score backing for films such as “Fantasia 2000,” and countless memorable recorded performances, including a personal favorite by Leonard Bernstein. Among these recordings is a significant one performed by George Gershwin himself at the piano, with accompaniment by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.
Recorded on June 10, 1924, and released that October, this version is not just historic for its timing, produced shortly after the piece’s premiere in February of the same year, but also for its details. While today’s audiences might not find it unusual, the phenomenon of a composer or musical artist performing their own work is rare in the history of human experience. Until the late 19th Century, the only way to experience music was in a live setting. By 1924, it had become more and more commonplace to experience music through commercially available recordings. When listening to the 1924 recording by Gershwin, listeners today have a direct auditory link to the piece’s 1924 inception. This is in stark contrast to classical pieces by composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, who never had the opportunity to record their works. Our understanding of these compositions is shaped by interpretations that are decades or centuries removed from their original creation. Yet, Gershwin’s personal interpretation of his composition offers a unique connection to the moment of its creation, allowing us to hear the piano played with the intensity Gershwin intended. It invokes a feeling of closeness to a time long removed from the current moment.
The accessibility of Gershwin’s 1924 recording is enhanced by its passage into the public domain. Such accessibility enriches our cultural heritage and allows for a deeper understanding of the moment in which it was produced. It is not some far-off German or French musical masterpiece, but a living document in which we can hear the direct influence of the composer. This direct access to Gershwin’s performance is an invaluable resource, providing a rare auditory bridge to the past. So, the next time you listen to “Rhapsody in Blue,” consider choosing the 1924 version performed by Gershwin. Imagine the uniqueness of that experience and the profound connection to history it offers, replicating the original sound and transporting us to the moment of a bygone era.
Lights, camera, preservation! On a star-studded evening at the Internet Archive, we rolled out the red carpet to honor the creative works from 1929 and the sound recordings from 1924 that entered the public domain in 2025. And what better way to celebrate than with a glamorous, Oscar-inspired soirée?
Guests arrived in true 1920s fashion, riding in a vintage convertible before stepping onto the red carpet, where they were met by the spirited Raining Chainsaws street theater troupe, who transformed into a fleet of eager, old-time paparazzi—flashing cameras, barking questions, and adding a touch of whimsy and Hollywood magic to the night.
📸 Check out photos from the red carpet!
Inside the Internet Archive, attendees sipped on French 75s and Old-Fashioneds, classic cocktails that transported us back to the final, glittering moments of the Roaring Twenties. The theme of the night? 1929—the year of the very first Academy Awards—and we honored this cinematic milestone with an evening of film, history, and remixing of the past.
🎞 Lecture by George Evelyn on Disney’s The Skeleton Dance Animation historian George Evelyn enlightened the audience with a viewing of The Skeleton Dance, the first of Disney’s Silly Symphonies. With its pioneering use of synchronized sound and animation, the 1929 short was a perfect reminder of how creativity from the past continues to shape the present.
🎬 Public Domain Film Remix Contest Screening What happens when today’s creators remix yesterday’s masterpieces? Our Public Domain Film Remix Contest showcased the most inventive reinterpretations of public domain classics, where old Hollywood met modern storytelling in unexpected and thrilling ways. View all the winners, honorable mentions and submissions from this year’s contest.
👀 Watch the livestream of the night’s festivities
As the evening came to a close, guests toasted to the future of open culture, celebrating the power of preservation, creativity, and the public domain. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this dazzling night of history, cinema, and community!
We’re thrilled to unveil the creativity of our top three winners and three honorable mentions in this year’s Public Domain Day Film Remix Contest. These remarkable films not only reimagined and transformed public domain works but also demonstrated the boundless potential of remixing creative works to create something new.
Watch the winning entries & honorable mentions below. Renowned film archivist Rick Prelinger returned to lead the jury, comprised of film professionals and enthusiasts including Simone Elias, Lara Gabrielle, BZ Petroff, and Theo Unkrich, offering insightful commentary on each selection and its standout qualities.
From Rick: The jury was deeply impressed by Queline Meadows’s inspired mix of movies, images, music and text woven into a subtle and emotionally affecting video expressing a strong sense of nostalgia and the irretrievable passage of time.
Second Place: “The Archive Boogie” by Samantha Close
1929 was a great year for the movies! Filmmaker Samantha Close expresses both the breadth of 1929’s production and the eternal bounty of the public domain, using images from 1929’s films and public domain images from elsewhere and elsewhen.
Meyer’s crowdpleasing film features the daring, dazzling “It Girl,” Clara Bow, who lights up the screen in more ways than one in this Sapphic love story.
Honorable Mention – History: “Moving Pictures Aren’t What They Used to Be” by Jeremy Floyd
Jeremy Floyd’s enjoyable piece pays tribute to an uninhibited period of filmmaking — Hollywood before the passage of the restrictive Production Code, when movies were filled with roguish suggestion and undisguised violence.
Honorable Mention – Home Movies: “Hoffman’s Honeymoon” by William Webb
Of all film genres, home movies are the most numerous yet the least seen and known. Webb’s engaging video brings them into the foreground, adding voices from dramatic films in the public domain, to build a goofy but endearing narrative.
Honorable Mention – Live Action: “The Wayback Machine” by DIEGO DIAZ & CAN SARK
Diaz and Sark’s film is an audacious and yes, dopey exploration of the essential greatness of Internet Archive and the dread near-infinity of copyright.
On January 22, hundreds of people from all over the world gathered together for Singin’ in the Public Domain, a virtual celebration of the works that moved into the public domain in 2025. The event was co-hosted by Internet Archive and Library Futures.
Watch:
Speakers include (in order of appearance):
Natalia Paruz (The Saw Lady), musician
Lila Bailey, Internet Archive
Jennie Rose Halperin, Internet Archive
Sean Dudley, Internet Archive
Jennifer Jenkins, Center for the Study of the Public Domain
Vivian Li, Innovator in Residence, Library of Congress
Tim Findlen (Roochie Toochie and the Ragtime Shepherd Kings), musician
Kathleen DeLaurenti, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University’s Arthur Friedheim Music Library
Colin Hancock (The Joymakers), musician
Ayun Halliday, Necromancers of the Public Domain
Simon Close, WYNC & Public Song Project
Dorothy Berry, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
One of the most enduring pieces of music from the 1920s has just now entered the public domain (Duke Law). Watch as Internet Archive’s Sean Dudley, a researcher specializing in the public domain, highlights the song’s iconic origins. Access the original sheet music from 1929 on Archive!
Transcript
Hi, my name is Sean.
I’m a researcher at the Internet Archive.
One of my favorite pieces of music is Singin’ in the Rain.
Of course, I know it best from the 1952 film, but it’s actually from a 1929 film that just entered public domain called The Hollywood Review.
The songs featured a couple of times, being sung by Cliff Edwards, who would later go on to be Jiminy Cricket, and then later on by this giant chorus of stars who are from the silent era and the early talky era, all singing in raincoats in two-strip Technicolor, so some really early color in film.
Now when we think about Singing of the Rain, we think about how many half-lives it’s already had under copyright.
The 1952 film, it’s reuse later on in A Clockwork Orange, and so many countless other moments.
So now that it’s in the public domain and it belongs to all of us, we can remix Singing in the Rain however we want.
Lights, camera, action! It’s time to roll out the red carpet and celebrate Public Domain Day, Oscar-style!
On Wednesday, we’re honoring all the legendary works that have entered the public domain in 2025. And what better way to do it than with a glamorous, Hollywood-inspired twist?
Public Domain Day Celebration at the Internet Archive ⏰ 6pm – 10pm 📍 Internet Archive, 300 Funston Avenue, San Francisco 🎟️ $15 – REGISTER NOW. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
This year, we’re honoring 1929 — the year of the very first Academy Awards, held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, CA. So put on your finest attire and get ready for an Oscar Award winning evening.
Sip on a classic French 75 or an Old-Fashioned as we savor the final moments of the Roaring Twenties.
Lecture by George Evelyn on Disney’s Silly Symphonies – “The Skeleton Dance” Join us for an insightful lecture by Animation Director George Evelyn as he explores Disney’s groundbreaking 1929 short, The Skeleton Dance, the first installment of the iconic Silly Symphonies series. Discover how this eerie, yet charming animation set the stage for the whimsical, music-driven cartoons we know and love today!
Screening of Our Film Mash-Up Winners Stick around for the Film Mash-Up competition winners, showcasing creative, mind-blowing reinterpretations of classic public domain works. From quirky edits to unique remixes, you won’t want to miss these inventive new takes on timeless films!
Don’t miss this dazzling night of history, cinema, and celebration!
If you’re unable to attend in person, we will also be hosting a virtual celebration on January 22nd at 10am PT.
Public Domain Day Celebration at the Internet Archive ⏰ 6pm – 10pm 📍 Internet Archive, 300 Funston Avenue, San Francisco 🎟️ $15 – REGISTER NOW. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
