Library of Congress Adds 25 Films to the National Registry

One of the highest honors any film can receive is to be chosen to be placed in the United States’ National Registry in the famed Library of Congress and this year will see 25 such films so honored.

“Even as Americans fill the movie theaters to see the latest releases, few are aware that up to half the films produced in this country before 1950 — and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920 — are lost forever,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “The National Film Registry seeks not only to honor these films, but to ensure that they are preserved for future generations to enjoy.”

Many great films of the past, especially those from the silent era and early “talkies” suffered irrepariable decay from just lying exposed for decades in old crates and on film studio storage shelves. Some have been saved by restoration, but so many have perished to never be seen again. The Library of Congress endeavors to never allow this kind of thing happen again and makes an annual effort to preserve some of the best of the best for posterity.

Listed below is this year’s picks by the Library of Congress for preservation and safe-keeping.

SF & genre-related films are in Bold:

— “The Naked City” (1948)

— “12 Angry Men” (1957)

— “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977)

— “In a Lonely Place” (1950)

— “Oklahoma!” (1955)

— “Back to the Future” (1985)

— “The Strong Man” (1926)

— “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962)

— “Bullitt” (1968)

— “Dance, Girl, Dance” (1940)

— “Dances With Wolves” (1990)

— “Days of Heaven” (1978)

— “Glimpse of the Garden” (1957)

— “Grand Hotel” (1932)

— “The House I Live In” (1945)

— “Mighty Like a Moose” (1926)

— “Now, Voyager” (1942)

— “Our Day” (1938)

— “Peege” (1972)

— “The Sex Life of the Polyp” (1928)

— “Three Little Pigs” (1933)

— “Tol’able David” (1921)

— “Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son” (1969-71)

— “The Women” (1939)

— “Wuthering Heights” (1939)