Every year since 1989, the United States National Film Preservation Board has chosen 25 movies for inclusion in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. The criteria for inclusion in the Registry is that a film be American-made, at least 10 years old, and “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Within those parameters is a lot of wiggle room. The Registry includes not just features, but experimental films, short subjects from the 1800’s, educational and advertising shorts, serials from the 30’s and 40’s, and much more. The Registry is a rich catalog of the best that American cinema has to offer, and an important advocate for the vital issue of film preservation. I strongly urge everyone to check out These Amazing Shadows, a wonderful documentary about the Registry and film preservation.
Anyway, 2012’s 25 new additions to the Registry have been announced. Detailed explanations of the rationale for each title’s inclusion are in the press release, but here are the titles themselves:
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
The Augustas (1930s-1950s)
Born Yesterday (1950)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight (1897)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Hours for Jerome: Parts 1 and 2 (1980-82)
The Kidnappers Foil (1930s-1950s)
Kodachrome Color Motion Picture Tests (1922)
A League of Their Own (1992)
The Matrix (1999)
The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939)
One Survivor Remembers (1995)
Parable (1964)
Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia (1990)
Slacker (1991)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
They Call It Pro Football (1967)
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1914)
The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England (1914)
Worthy additions, all of them. Add them to your “to-see” list if you consider yourself a true cinephile.
