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Library to Host 25th Anniversary National Book Festival in September 2025
Celebrate Meg Medina’s Two Years as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature See Photography from America's Library Before Exhibition Closes at End of December “Collecting Memories” Exhibition On View in new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery Library of Congress
25 Films Named to National Film Registry for Preservation
Release Date: 17 Dec 2024
Montage of 2024 National Film Registry
25 Films Named to National Film Registry for Preservation
‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,’ ‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ ‘Spy Kids,’ ‘Mi Familia,’ ‘Uptown Saturday Night,’ ‘Up in Smoke,’ ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ and ‘The Social Network’ Among Titles Selected for Recognition
Twenty-five films have been selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2024 due to their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today.
The new selections date back nearly 130 years and include a diverse group of films, filmmakers and Hollywood landmarks. The selections span from a silent film created to entice audiences at the dawn of cinema in 1895 to the newest selected film from 2010, a drama about social media.
Popular Hollywood releases selected this year include the first Star Trek film added to the registry with “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” from 1982, as well as Eddie Murphy’s first feature film on the registry, “Beverly Hills Cop.”
The public submitted nominations of more than 6,700 titles for consideration this year. Several selected titles this year received strong public support, including: “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “No Country for Old Men,” “The Social Network,” and “Dirty Dancing.”
The selections bring the number of titles in the registry to 900. Some films are among the 2 million moving image collection items held in the Library of Congress. Others are preserved in coordination with copyright holders or other film archives.
“Films reflect our nation’s history and culture and must be preserved in our national library for generations to come. We’re honored by the responsibility to add 25 diverse new films to the National Film Registry each year as we work to preserve our cultural heritage,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “This is a collective effort in the film community to preserve our cinematic heritage, and we are grateful to our partners, including the National Film Preservation Board.”
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will host a television special Wednesday, Dec. 18, starting at 8 p.m. ET to screen a selection of films named to the registry this year. Hayden will join TCM host and film historian Jacqueline Stewart, who is chair of the National Film Preservation Board, to discuss the films.
Stewart led the board in studying and recommending films across a variety of genres and eras to be considered for the registry.
“The National Film Registry now includes 900 titles, and what's remarkable to me is that every year when the board talks about films and their significance, we find new titles to consider. The wealth of American film history is sometimes rather overwhelming, and people often
American Me (1992)
In his film directorial debut, Edward James Olmos does not hold back in portraying the dark, brutal realities of Chicano gang life in Los Angeles. The film follows the fictional rise of a Mexican Mafia leader (played by Olmos), and the harsh life in and out of prison. Based loosely on a true story, the film’s depiction of violence and abuse can sometimes be hard to watch, but it brings to reality who controls the drug traffic in prison and on the streets. In an interview with the Library of Congress, Olmos said, “I went for stories that weren’t going to be told by anybody else. Originally, no one wanted to do ‘American Me,’ but I knew it had to be told.”
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
The one-two punch of James Cagney (Rocky Sullivan), Humphrey Bogart (James Frazier) and director Michael Curtiz makes this Depression-era crime drama one that reinforces the idea that America was made in the streets of immigrant, segregated, hardscrabble neighborhoods. Released in the early years of the Production Code, “Angels” found a way to redeem its gangster characters and play by the rules that required a redemptive theme. Swaggering ex-con Sullivan’s conscience manifests in the form of his childhood friend turned cleric Father Jerry Connolly (Pat O’Brien) who does his best to keep the wise guys in line and set another example for the lovable, mischievous Dead End Kids.
Annabelle Serpentine Dance aka Serpentine Dance - Annabelle (1895)
The 1890s marked the dawn of cinema, with films from this decade serving as initial experiments to define the “language of movies.” Early works often were actualities depicting people, places and things: narrative cinema did not become prevalent for another decade. “Serpentine Dance” constitutes an excellent example of what the industry created to entice and enchant audiences. This Edison Manufacturing Company silent short is one of a series of recordings of the popular dances performed by Annabelle Moore. In another attempt to lure cinemagoers, many prints featured hand-tinted color.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
The taglines “The Heat is On!” and “In Detroit a cop learns to take the heat. In L.A. he learns to keep his cool” sizzle through the screen with comedian turned box-office superstar Eddie Murphy (Axel Foley) as a Detroit cop navigating some unfamiliar terrain when he heads West to find his childhood friend’s killer in the posh streets of the 90210. This film is the first in a four-film franchise. The film’s legendary electronic instrumental theme song “Axel F.” by Harold Faltermeyer sets the tone and pace for a film that keeps viewers laughing — and rooting for Axel Foley to get his man.
The Chelsea Girls (1966)
Directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey and described as “a double-projection experimental soap opera,” “Chelsea Girls” encapsulates everything that makes a Warhol a “Warhol” — playing with form and content, assembling complete reels of unedited film in various ways. The reels are projected side by side, accompanied by alternating soundtracks, thus lending itself to almost infinite audience interpretations. The over three-hour film chronicles characters both real and imagined that could have been hanging out at New York City’s Chelsea Hotel. It includes such Warhol “superstars” and friends as Nico, Ondine, Ingrid Superstar, Brigid Polk, Ed Hood, Patrick Flemming, Mary Woronov, International Velvet, Mario Montez, Marie Menken, Gerard Malanga, Eric Emerson, and more. It is a time capsule of a downtown New York art scene that is long gone but not forgotten. Preserved by the Museum of Modern Art: 16mm reversal camera original copied photochemically in 1989.
Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (1989)
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, “Common Threads” stands both as a heart-breaking record of the nation’s greatest catastrophe of the 1980s and an extraordinary monument to the power of grief and activism to effect change. Winner of the Academy Award for Documentary Feature, the film chronicles the creation and exhibition of the NAMES Project Aids Memorial Quilt. To Illustrate the tragic magnitude of losses, “Common Threads” includes profiles and personal stories of those memorialized, examines the broad swaths of society impacted by HIV/AIDS, as well as efforts to combat those who deepened the crisis through fear, misinformation and prejudice. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, Milestone Film & Video and Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, a partnership between Outfest and UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Compensation (1999)
Director Zeinabu irene Davis’ first feature depicts two Chicago love stories, one set at the dawn of the 20th century and the other in contemporary times, featuring a deaf woman and a hearing man. Played by the same actors (Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks), both couples face the specter of death when the man is diagnosed with tuberculosis in the early story, and the woman with AIDS in the contemporary one. “Inspired by a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (who died of tuberculosis in 1906, at the age of 33), “Compensation” takes an unusual narrative approach. Upon casting deaf actress Banks, Davis and screenwriter Mark Arthur Chéry modified the film to incorporate American Sign Language and title cards, making it accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences,” wrote film historian Jacqueline Stewart, chairwoman of the National Film Preservation Board. Guided and approved by director Zeinabu irene Davis, this 4K digital restoration was undertaken by the Criterion Collection, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Wimmin With a Mission Productions in conjunction with The Sundance Institute from a scan of the 16mm original camera negative.
Dirty Dancing (1987)
“Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” and if you were a child of the 1980s, this is one PG-13 musical you begged your parents to watch, despite the tough topics the film tackles: pregnancy out of wedlock, abortion, classism and anti-Semitism. Patrick Swayze (Johnny Castle) and Jennifer Grey (Frances House) sizzle on screen as the unlikely leading lovers. Though set in the Catskills resorts of the 1960s, more than a bit of a 1980s ethos finds its way into the film, updating “West Side Story’s themes of young love breaking down societal barriers through music and dance. Teen musical genre films of the 1980s like “Footloose” and “Dirty Dancing” remain influential and imitated to this day, but there is no parallel to Baby and Johnny on the dance floor.
Ganja and Hess (1973)
Bill Gunn ranks high on any list of filmmakers deserving far more recognition. In The New Yorker, film critic Richard Brody described Gunn as being "a visionary filmmaker left on the sidelines of the most ostensibly liberated period of American filmmaking." Playwright, novelist, actor and director Gunn’s cult-horror fever dream classic “Ganja and Hess” proved a sensation at Cannes in 1973. Fifty years on, this film addresses complexities of addiction, sexuality and Black identity that remain prescient. Preserved by the Museum of Modern Art: Two 35mm composite prints of the original release, combined and copied photochemically in 2003.
Invaders from Mars (1953)
The 1950s arguably produced the most classic science fiction films, fed by post-World War II paranoia over the hydrogen bomb, rapid technological change, fear of Soviet expansion and Communist infiltration of American society. Directed by William Cameron Menzies with cinematography by John Seitz, the film features stunning sets and photography in Supercinecolor. This indie classic helped create the visual language of science fiction cinema and was a significant entry in the canon of ‘post-war paranoia’ cinema. Projects ranging from “Star Trek” to “The Iron Giant” to “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” bear the thematic fingerprint of this film. Restored by Ignite Films in collaboration with the George Eastman Museum, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
KoKo's Earth Control (1928)
Imaginative, sassy, surreal and non-linear characterize films from the Fleischer Studios, which battled the Walt Disney Co. for animation supremacy during the 1920s and 1930s, with their competing styles delighting audiences and leading to many technical advancements. Among the contributions from Max and Dave Fleischer were rotoscoping and legendary characters such as Betty Boop, Popeye and KoKo the Clown. In this film, KoKo and Fitz the Dog gain power over the levers controlling Earth, to disastrous results. “KoKo’s Earth Control” has been photochemically restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive from the original nitrate negative with main titles restored and a missing section enlarged from a supplemental 16mm source. Restoration funding provided by Jerry Beck, Will Ryan and the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood.
Mi Familia aka My Family (1995)
During the nation’s nearly 250-year history, immigration has fueled the continuing vibrancy of our culture, commerce and creativity. The key demographic change over the past 75 years has been Latino immigration. In “My Family”/”Mi Familia,” director Gregory Nava creates an emotional and evocative story of multi-generational Mexican-American family life, narrated by a second-generation immigrant. “Their story is told in images of startling beauty and great overflowing energy; it is rare to hear so much laughter from an audience that is also sometimes moved to tears… This is the great American story, told again and again, of how our families came to this land and tried to make it better for their children,” wrote Roger Ebert.
The Miracle Worker (1962)
This celebrated early work from director Arthur Penn tells the incredible true-life story of Helen Keller and her determined teacher Anne Sullivan, chronicled in remarkable performances by Anne Bancroft and a young Patty Duke. “The Miracle Worker” is anchored by the extraordinary scene where Sullivan tries to teach Keller table manners. Told in stark black and white, and almost completely devoid of sentiment, the spareness of its production allows the power of its story and performances to stand out as an inspiring account of human potential and ability realized.
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Gus Van Sant’s magnificently original cult classic “My Own Private Idaho” is a wildly re-envisioned retelling of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” River Phoenix, in an iconic performance of poignant vulnerability, and Keanu Reeves play Northwest street hustlers — one (Phoenix) doing it to survive, the other (Reeves) to humiliate his politician father — who embark on a multi-state and then international search for Phoenix wayward mother but also for meaning and identity. The journey, as created by director Van Sant, is a haunted and emotionally-fraught one, depicted with equal measures of dream-like vision and hardcore reality.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
From the fecund mind of the Coen Brothers, this modern-day Western (c. 1980) was hailed as a classic nearly from the moment of its independent release. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s vivid novel, the film won the Oscar for Best Picture that year. Along with a fine script (also by the Coens) and some taut direction, the film is benefited to an incalculable degree with its trio of lead actors. Josh Brolin is down on his luck and just scrapping by when a fortune in drug money falls in his lap. Javier Bardem is the sociopath who wants to take him down and get the money back, and Tommy Lee Jones is the Texas sheriff who finds himself pulled into the violent scenario.
Powwow Highway (1989)
Along with women and other people of color, Native Americans were treated with indifference or worse by Hollywood for many decades: they were given few opportunities to direct, and even films with Native American plotlines tended to perpetuate stereotypes. The indie classic “Powwow Highway” became one of the first to treat Native Americans as ordinary people navigating the complexities of everyday life. In part a witty buddy road movie, critics noted that “Powwow Highway” also contains reflections on the relationship of Native Americans to land and their search for a spiritual core to maintain their Native American heritage in American society. Based on the novel of the same name by David Seals, the film features Gary Farmer and A Martinez.
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
One of the seminal sports films that has inspired audiences for decades, “The Pride of the Yankees” stars Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright and Walter Brennan. The film shines as a memorable Hollywood tribute to the New York Yankees iron man first baseman Lou Gehrig, who had recently died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s disease). Several former Yankee teammates such as Babe Ruth appear in the film, thus adding to its authenticity and poignance. This beloved classic culminates with Cooper’s re-enactment of Gehrig's famous 1939 farewell speech at Yankee Stadium and its iconic, heart-wrenching coda: “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”
The Social Network (2010)
A movie based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires” exploring creation of the social media giant Facebook would at first glance seem more the subject of a documentary film, far too dry, geeky, highbrow and slow-paced for a commercial, Hollywood production. Instead, thanks to a dazzling cast of young actors, Aaron Sorkin’s trademark rapid-fire dialogue and director David Fincher’s skill in pacing and scene creation, “The Social Network” becomes a riveting examination of modern-day American business and capitalism. The film offers both a critical look at the personal and ethical challenges faced by the key players, and a compelling reflection on broader issues related to technology, entrepreneurship, the limitations of genius, and the dangers of society becoming isolated, addicted and the slave to technology and the wonders it offers.
Spy Kids (2001)
In “Spy Kids,” (the first film in a highly successful media franchise) Robert Rodriguez weaves Hispanic culture in the film by incorporating cultural elements and values that make the characters feel both distinct and universally relatable. The emphasis on family as their top priority and driving motivation throughout the films underscores the importance of familial bonds and cultural heritage, adding depth and authenticity to the story. This delightful spy fantasy film where children discover their parents’ day jobs are not dull and boring is a wonderful blend of films such as “The Incredibles,” James Bond films, and “True Lies.”
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Often considered the best of the six original-cast Star Trek theatrical films, “The Wrath of Khan” features Nicholas Meyer’s expert direction and James Horner’s stirring score to enhance the always intriguing “Star Trek” scripts, which echo the vision of Gene Roddenberry. “Wrath” reprises an old nemesis from the 1967 TV episode “Space Seed,” with Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) battling the volatile and ruthless Khan (Ricardo Montalban). In part an interstellar game of starship cat-and-mouse, and a testosterone-filled alpha mano a mano battle between Kirk and Khan, the film achieves true resonance when exploring larger social and personal themes, in this case Spock’s personal sacrifice to save the Enterprise: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…..or the one.”
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Graphic, lurid and completely unapologetic in its brutality, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” has since its debut in drive-ins and grindhouse theaters, become a cultural, generational and filmmaking touchstone. Filmed for a pittance and supposedly as difficult of a production as a film can be (beset with record heat and filthy locations), “Texas” would establish many of the tenets of what would become the gore/slasher/splatter genre, including the long-lasting “final girl” trope. Condemned by many at the time of its release for what was seen as its gratuitousness, the film was nevertheless embraced by young movie audiences for both its jump-out-of-your seat-scares (great use of isolation and darkness) and it elements of (very) dark humor.
Up in Smoke (1978)
The 1970s produced a golden run of films now considered essential works of art (“The Godfather,” “Jaws,” “Chinatown,” “Taxi Driver,” and many more.) Then there were films like the wildly popular “Up in Smoke,” an unexpected smash hit that arguably established the “stoner” genre of film. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong reworked many of their comic routines to infuse this audience pleaser with goofy, stupid, “check your brain at the door” fun. Some commentators expressed outrage at the counter-culture antics of Cheech and Chong filling theaters, but their complaints had zero impact. The success of “Up in Smoke” paved the way for subsequent memorable movie characters like Jeff Spicoli and The Dude.
Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
The era of enormously popular Black-cast films, often referred to as “Blaxploitation,” began in the early 1970s with massive hits such as “Shaft.” Though these films opened long-closed doors for Black directors, writers and actors, some in the African American community felt they also fostered negative images. To dispel stereotypes and put his own stamp on the era, Sidney Poitier directed “Uptown Saturday Night,” a fun, entertaining, go-for-broke crime comedy about two blue-collar workers trying to recover a stolen wallet containing a winning lottery ticket. The film stars Poitier, Bill Cosby and Harry Belafonte and has a remarkable supporting cast including Calvin Lockhart, Flip Wilson, Richard Pryor, Paula Kelly, Roscoe Lee Browne, Don Marshall, Rosalind Cash, Paul Harris and Harold Nicholas.
Will (1981)
In this remarkable-but-unknown micro-budget indie feature, a former basketball player struggles to overcome addiction, hoping for recovery and a second chance so he can mentor youth. “Will” is widely considered the first independent feature-length film directed by a Black woman (Jessie Maple). Maple had a trailblazing career as a cinematographer and director in the film industry. “Will” stars Obaka Adedunyo and Loretta Devine, contains some graphic depictions of addiction but also a message of hope and resilience. Scenes filmed in early 1980s Harlem depicting its spaces and vibrant street life add to the film’s importance as an invaluable cultural record. Preserved from material in the Jessie Maple Patton collection at the Black Film Center & Archive at Indiana University. A 4k digital restoration was done by the Black Film Center & Archive with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture and the Center for African American Media Arts.
Zora Lathan Student Films (1975-1976)
Six short 16mm films created by Adaora “Zora” Lathan during her time as a film student at the University of Illinois, Chicago, make up this selection. While Lathan’s films focus on her family members and domestic spaces, she does not categorize them as home movies. Instead, Lathan describes them as artworks designed to “showcase filmmaking techniques available in the mid-1970s” and reflect the “problem-solving” approach emphasized by UIC’s design program. Lathan sought to create visually compelling short films featuring intimate vignettes about the whimsy, experiments and delights of everyday life such as making a pie. Preserved in 2022 from the original camera reversal elements by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture through a National Film Preservation Foundation grant.