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The Librarian of Congress recently announced a varied list of 25 moving pictures selected for the 2024 National Film Registry due to cultural, historic or aesthetic importance in preserving film heritage.
Carla Hayden issued the release of the new titles Dec. 17, selections dating back nearly 130 years. The films include a diverse group of films, filmmakers and Hollywood landmarks, according to a Library of Congress release.
Titles span a silent film created to entice audiences at the dawn of cinema in 1895 to the newest film from 2010, a drama about social media.
Popular Hollywood releases selected this year include the first Star Trek film added to the registry, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” from 1982, as well as Eddie Murphy’s first feature film on the registry, “Beverly Hills Cop.”
The public submitted nominations of more than 6,700 titles for consideration this year, according to the release. Several selected titles received strong public support, including: “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “No Country for Old Men,” “The Social Network” and “Dirty Dancing.”
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The selections bring the number of titles on the registry to 900. Some films are among 2 million moving image collection items held in the Library of Congress. Others are preserved in coordination with copyright holders or other film archives.
“Films reflect our nation’s history and culture and must be preserved in our national library for generations to come,” said Hayden in a statement. “We’re honored by the responsibility to add 25 diverse new films to the National Film Registry each year as we work to preserve our cultural heritage. This is a collective effort in the film community to preserve our cinematic heritage, and we are grateful to our partners, including the National Film Preservation Board.”
Turner Classic Movies hosted a television special Dec. 18 of a selection of the 2024 registry films named to the registry this year, with host and film historian Jacqueline Stewart, chair of the National Film Preservation Board.
“What’s remarkable to me is that every year when the board talks about films and their significance, we find new titles to consider,” Stewart said. “The wealth of American film history is sometimes rather overwhelming, and people often wonder: how do you recommend this film or that film? It’s through a lot of research, conversation and discussion, and it’s through a commitment to showing the true diversity of filmmaking.”
Listed this year are student films, independent films, animation, documentary and experimental works, as well as feature length narrative drama, comedy, horror and science fiction, she stated.
Films Selected for the 2024 National Film Registry, from oldest to newest are: Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895); KoKo’s Earth Control (1928); Angels with Dirty Faces (1938); Pride of the Yankees (1942); Invaders from Mars (1953); The Miracle Worker (1962); The Chelsea Girls (1966);
Ganja and Hess (1973); Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); Uptown Saturday Night (1974); Zora Lathan Student Films (1975-76); Up in Smoke (1978); Will (1981); Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982); Beverly Hills Cop (1984); Dirty Dancing (1987); Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989;)
Powwow Highway (1989); My Own Private Idaho (1991); American Me (1992); Mi Familia (1995); Compensation (1999); Spy Kids (2001); No Country for Old Men (2007) and The Social Network (2010).
The public can submit nominations for next year’s list throughout the year at loc.gov/film through Aug. 15, 2025.
In an interview with the Library of Congress, Aaron Sorkin recalled the making of “The Social Network” about the origins of Facebook and his collaboration with director David Fincher. Sorkin wrote the screenplay with his trademark rapid-fire dialogue based on the 2009 book “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich, according to the release.
“It felt like a good courtroom drama to me. I didn’t know it was going to be a lot more than that at the time,” Sorkin said.
He compares the work of crafting dialogue for the screen to making music.
“Anytime speech is used for the sake of performance, it has all of the same qualities and rules that music does. It is music. It has tone and pitch and rhythm,” Sorkin said. “So what a line sounds like is as important to me as what it means.”
Five films selected this year include prominent Hispanic artists or themes, including “American Me,” “Mi Familia,” “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Spy Kids” and “Up in Smoke.”
Two films feature the work of Edward James Olmos: “Mi Familia” and “American Me.” Mi Familia” director Gregory Nava now has three explorations of the Hispanic experience on the National Film Registry, along with “El Norte” and “Selena.”
Two films this year also feature Cheech Marin: “Up in Smoke” and “Spy Kids,” Marin’s first films on the registry.
“Up in Smoke” is the first Cheech & Chong film on the registry.
In an interview with the Library of Congress, Marin recalled making the Cheech & Chong comedies.
“The level of improv that we brought to those movies is what gave it a spontaneity,” Marin said. “And that’s why people thought they were happening for the first time. Because in many instances, it was happening for the first time.”
One of the selections with strong public nominations this year, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” features Mexican-American actor Ricardo Montalbán as the main antagonist in the film.
Several films this year were made by Black directors, including: “Compensation,” “Ganja and Hess,” “Uptown Saturday Night,” “Will,” and “Zora Lathan Student Films.” The film “Will” is widely considered to be the first independent feature-length film directed by a Black woman, Jessie Maple, a trailblazing cinematographer and director, according to the LOC release.
The selection “Powwow Highway” from 1989 stands out as one of the first indie classics to treat Native Americans as ordinary people, navigating the complexities of everyday life, departing from long-perpetuated stereotypes. The film was based on the novel of the same name by David Seals, according to the LOC
In cases where a selected title has not already been preserved, the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper works to ensure the film will be preserved and available for future generations.
The Packard is a a state-of-the-art facility where the nation’s library acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings. The former Federal Reserve facility in Mount Pony. is home to more than 10 million collection items
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