The Library of Congress announced another slate of 25 films to be added to the National Film Registry for historic preservation. The selections, which span from 1896 to 2014 releases, include films from Ken Burns, Christopher Nolan, Peter Weir, Amy Heckerling, Wes Anderson and more.
“When we preserve films, we preserve American culture for generations to come. These selections for the National Film Registry show us that films are instrumental in capturing important parts of our nation’s story,” Robert R. Newlen, Acting Librarian of Congress, said in a statement. “We are proud to continue this important work, adding a broad range of 25 films to the National Film Registry as a collective effort in the film community to protect our cinematic heritage.”
Among the films added to the registry are “Before Sunrise,” “Clueless,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Inception,” “The Incredibles,” “The Karate Kid” (1984), “Philadelphia” and “The Thing.” Ken Burns’ “Brooklyn Bridge” also became the first documentary from the filmmaker to join the registry.
“There’s a specific set of postcards in the Library of Congress Photochrome Prints
collection. They’re photographs from the turn of the century and hand-tinted. When we were first starting to figure out how to tell this story (of ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’), the views and images that we were looking for, the architecture and the landscapes that we wanted, they don’t exist anymore,” Wes Anderson said. “We went through the entire Photochrome collection, which is a lot of images. We made our own versions of things, but much of what is in our film comes directly from that collection from the Library of Congress.”
These 25 additions bring the total number of films represented on the National Film registry to 925. Turner Classic Movies will air a television special hosted by cinema historian and National Film Preservation Board chair Jacqueline Stewart on Thursday, March 19, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, during which a selection of this year’s additions will be screened.
See the complete list of movies below:
Films selected for the 2025 National Film Registry
- “The Tramp and the Dog” (1896)
- “The Oath of the Sword” (1914)
- “The Maid of McMillan” (1916)
- “The Lady” (1925)
- “Sparrows” (1926)
- “Ten Nights in a Barroom” (1926)
- “White Christmas” (1954)
- “High Society” (1956)
- “Brooklyn Bridge” (1981)
- “Say Amen, Somebody” (1982)
- “The Thing” (1982)
- “The Big Chill” (1983)
- “The Karate Kid” (1984)
- “Glory” (1989)
- “Philadelphia” (1993)
- “Before Sunrise” (1995)
- “Clueless” (1995)
- “The Truman Show” (1998)
- “Frida” (2002)
- “The Hours” (2002)
- “The Incredibles” (2004)
- “The Wrecking Crew” (2008)
- “Inception” (2010)
- “The Loving Story” (2011)
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014)
