National Film Registry


/wiki/National Film Registrywork
These films are not selected as the 'best' American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring importance to American culture. They reflect who we are as a people and as a nation.
—National Film Registry FAQ

The National Film Registry is a department of the United States Library of Congress designed to index American-made films that are "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant". In other words, the films that end up on the Registry are the ones that deserve to live forever according to the US government. This is among the highest honors an American 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 (usually in December) to be listed on 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. The official list is here; the entries have been copied to this page. Anyone interested in suggesting some worthy titles can do so here; nominations do not carry over from year to year, but the Library of Congress does keep a list of famous films that didn't make the list in previous years.

As of the 2019 selection, the oldest film on the Registry is The Newark Athlete (1891) and the newest is Brokeback Mountain (2005). Of the 775 films on the list, 62 were directed or co-directed by women; a list can be found on the LOC's website.

A note about terminology: Films are "on" The National Film Registry list, not "in" the Registry. This is not a physical collection of movies.

Films in the Registry

Added in 1989 or the 1990s

1989

The first twenty-five entries.

1990

1991

1992

The year which brought the total to 100.

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

Added in the 2000s

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

  • Traffic in Souls (1913)
  • Tess of the Storm Country (1914)
  • The Curse of 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 First as a Person (1960-1975)
  • The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)
  • Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971-1972)
  • Blazing Saddles (1974)
  • Rocky (1976)
  • Halloween (1978)
  • Drums of Winter (a.k.a. Uksuum Cauyai) (1988)
  • sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
  • Groundhog Day (1993)
  • Fargo (1996)

2007

2008

The year which brought the total to 500.

2009

Added in the 2010s

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

  • Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
  • Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
  • A Fool There Was (1915)
  • Humoresque (1920)
  • The Mark of Zorro (1920)
  • Black and Tan (1929)
  • Dracula (Spanish language version) (1931)
  • Our Daily Bread (1934)
  • The Old Mill (1937)
  • Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
  • John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946)
  • The Story of Menstruation (1946)
  • Winchester '73 (1950)
  • Imitation of Life (1959)
  • Seconds (1966)
  • Portrait of Jason (1967)
  • Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
  • The Inner World of Aphasia (1968)
  • Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1974)
  • Being There (1979)
  • Ghostbusters (1984)
  • Top Gun (1986)
  • Sink or Swim (1990)
  • The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  • L.A. Confidential (1997)

2016

2017

2018

2019

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