The National Film Registry at the Library of Congress announced the new batch of 25 films that will be preserved for all time. The list includes popular hits like Ghostbusters and Top Gun, as well as recent critically acclaimed films like The Shawshank Redemption and L.A. Confidential.
In order to join the registry, a film must be determined to be “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and at least 10 years old. Anyone can nominate a film through the National Film Preservation Board site.
This year’s list includes films as recent as L.A. Confidential and as old as 1894’s Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, the oldest copyrighted motion picture that survives.
Fans of classic Hollywood movies will appreciate knowing that King Vidor’s farmer epic Our Daily Bread (1934); the hilarious Preston Sturges war comedy Hail The Conquering Hero (1944); the Douglas Fairbanks actioner The Mark of Zorro (1920); Douglas Sirk’s epic melodrama Imitation of Life (1959); and Anthony Mann’s beloved James Stewart Western Winchester ‘73 (1950) will all be preserved forever.
John Frankenheimer’s cult classic Seconds, which features one of Rock Hudson’s best performances, was also selected.
The important Disney Silly Symphonies short The Old Mill from 1937 was also added. The short was an important test of the multiplane camera, which Disney animators used during Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia and Bambi. It earned a special Oscar for its use of the camera and is widely considered one of the best animated shorts ever made.
Here's the full list:
Being There (1979)
Black and Tan (1929)
Dracula (Spanish language version) (1931)
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975)
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
A Fool There Was (1915)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
Humoresque (1920)
Imitation of Life (1959)
The Inner World of Aphasia (1968)
John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
The Old Mill (1937)
Our Daily Bread (1934)
Portrait of Jason (1967)
Seconds (1966)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Sink or Swim (1990)
The Story of Menstruation (1946)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
Top Gun (1986)
Winchester ’73 (1950)