The Library of Congress announced on Wednesday that 25 motion pictures have been added to its National Film Registry for being considered culturally, aesthetically, or historically important. Among the films included this year is the classic Disney movie Mary Poppins, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, and The Right Stuff, a tale about the beginning of the U.S. space program.
Not all of films in the registry are entertainment films. It also includes documentaries, experimental films and cartoons, and student productions. Michael Moore’s Roger & Me, a documentary about the closing of auto plants in Flint, Michigan and its effect on those who lost their jobs, is being added to the list as well.
One of the oldest films added to the list today comes from the silent era. 1920’s Daughter of Dawn features an all-Native-American cast and tells a fictional Native American love story.
Other noteworthy honorees include 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in a dysfunctional relationship; 1965’s science-fiction film Forbidden Planet, which included a personable robot named Robby; and The Magnificent Seven, a western inspired by a Japanese samurai film.
The National Film Registry, established in 1989, now contains a total of 625 films.
“The National Film Registry stands among the finest summations of more than a century of extraordinary American cinema,” James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, stated in today’s announcement. “This key component of American cultural history, however, is endangered, so we must protect the nation’s matchless film heritage and cinematic creativity.”
Here is the full list of the 2013 honorees:
- Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
- Brandy in the Wilderness (1969)
- Cicero March (1966)
- Daughter of Dawn (1920)
- Decasia (2002)
- Ella Cinders (1926)
- Forbidden Planet (1956)
- Gilda (1946)
- The Hole (1962)
- Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
- King of Jazz (1930)
- The Lunch Date (1989)
- The Magnificent Seven (1960)
- Martha Graham Dance film (1944)
- Mary Poppins (1964)
- Men & Dust (1940)
- Midnight(1939)
- Notes on the Port of St. Francis(1951)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- The Quiet Man (1952)
- The Right Stuff (1983)
- Roger & Me (1989)
- A Virtuous Vamp (1919)
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
- Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
