The National Film Registry is a department of the United States Library of Congress designed to preserve American-made films that are "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant". In other words, the films that end up in the NFR are the ones that deserve to live forever according to
the US government. This is among the highest honors a movie can receive, much higher than even the
Academy Awards (and, believe it or not, less politically meddled with).
Twenty-five movies are selected each year for the Registry. To qualify, an entry must be at least ten years old. Members of the public are allowed to suggest up to 50 titles per year for inclusion. Anyone interested in suggesting some worthy titles can do so
here
.
Films in the Registry:
- 1989, the first twenty-five entries
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992, the year which brought the total to 100
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- Westinghouse Works, 1904 (1904)
- From The Manager To The Cross (1912)
- The Immigrant (1917)
- Sky High (1922)
- The Lost World (1925)
- The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
- Pass The Gravy (1928)
- Steamboat Willie (1928)
- The Public Enemy (1931)
- 42nd Street (1933)
- Little Miss Marker (1934)
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
- The City (1939)
- Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapses (1940)
- The Ox-Bow Incidnet (1943)
- Gun Crazy (1949)
- Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
- The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
- Modesta (1956)
- Dead Birds (1964)
- Don't Look Back (1967)
- Easy Rider (1969)
- The Last Picture Show (1971)
- Powers Of Ten (1978)
- Tootsie (1982)
- 1999
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- Traffic In Souls (1913)
- Tess Of The Storm Country (1914)
- Cry Of The Quon Gwon (1916-1917)
- Flesh And The Devil (1927)
- The Last Command (1928)
- Applause (1929)
- St. Louis Blues (1929)
- The Big Trail (1930)
- Red Dust (1932)
- Daughter Of Shanghai (1937)
- Early Abstractions (1939-1956)
- Siege (1940)
- Notorious (1946)
- In The Street (1948)
- A Time Out Of War (1954)
- Think Of Me As A First Person (1960-1975)
- The TAMI Show (1964)
- Reminiscences Of A Journey To Lithuania (1971-1972)
- Blazing Saddles (1974)
- Rocky (1976)
- Halloween (1978)
- Drums Of Winter (1988)
- Sex Lies And Videotape (1989)
- Groundhog Day (1993)
- Fargo (1996)
- 2007
- 2008
- White Fawn's Devotion (1910)
- The Perils Of Pauline (1914)
- One Week (1920)
- Foolish Wives (1922)
- So's Your Old Man (1926)
- Hallelujah! (1929)
- The Invisible Man (1933)
- Sergeant York (1941)
- George Stevens World War II Footage (1943-1946)
- The Killers (1946)
- The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
- Johnny Guitar (1954)
- Disneyland Dream (1956)
- A Face In The Crowd (1957)
- On The Bowery (1957)
- The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
- Flower Drum Song (1961)
- The March (1964)
- The Pawnbroker (1965)
- In Cold Blood (1967)
- Deliverance (1972)
- No Lies (1973)
- Free Radicals (1979)
- The Terminator (1984)
- Water And Power (1989)
- 2009
- 2010
- 2011