No Country for Old Men, Mi Familia, Uptown Saturday Night, Up in Smoke, are among twenty-five films selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2024. The selections bring the number of titles in the registry to 900.
Popular releases selected this year include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,No Country for Old Men,The Social Network, Dirty Dancing, as well as Eddie Murphy’s first feature film on the registry, Beverly Hills Cop.
Two films this year feature the work of Edward James Olmos: Mi Familia and American Me. This brings Olmos to eight films on the registry as an actor. American Me is his first appearance as a director in the registry.
With this year’s addition of Mi Familia, director Gregory Nava now has three renowned explorations of the Hispanic experience on the National Film Registry. Mi Familia joins previous selections El Norte and Selena.
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.
An Academy Award-winning documentary selected this year tells the story of the National AIDS Memorial Quilt, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, and an important period in LGBTQ history. The Library also holds the newly digitized archival records of the National AIDS Memorial Quilt, representing the lives of those who died of AIDS since 1981.
Deaf characters and culture are represented in two films this year: The Miracle Worker from 1962 and Compensation from 1999. In “The Miracle Worker,” Arthur Penn shows the Helen Keller story in a direct and unsentimental manner unusual for its time. The film won two Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Anne Bancroft and Best Supporting Actress for Patty Duke, who was 16 and the youngest person to win an Oscar at the time.
“Films reflect our nation’s history and culture and must be preserved in our national library for generations to come. 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,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “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 (TCM) will host a television special Wednesday, December 18, starting at 8 p.m. ET to screen a selection of films named to the registry this year. Hayden will join TCM host and film historian Jacqueline Stewart, who is chair of the National Film Preservation Board, to discuss the films.
Films Selected for the 2024 National Film Registry
(chronological order)
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)
The Social Network (2010)