Awards Watch: National Film Registry 2009

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year since 1989 the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to be preserved for all time. And this year, they (finally) got a little gayer with the inductions of Dog Day Afternoon (with Al Pacino as a bisexual bank robber) and (to a lesser extent) Pillow Talk (starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day).

Other cinematic classics to make the cut for 2009 include the sci-fi favorite The Incredible Shrinking Man, the melodramas Jezebel and Mrs. Miniver (featuring the Oscar winning performances of, respectively, Bette Davis and Greer Garson), The Mark of Zorro (Tyrone Power), The Muppet Movie (!), Serigio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, The Story of G.I. Joe (Robert Mitchum) and Under Western Stars (Roy Rogers).

And it looks like even the Library of Congress can't escape the Michael Jackson fever that has swept the nation since his death earlier this year with the inclusion of Thriller, his groundbreaking music video (a first for the NFR). The remainder of the inductees are mostly obscure shorts and documentaries; click here for a full description (pdf) of all NFR's class of '09, or see the comments section below for a quick look.

Awards Watch: National Film Registry 2008

You may recall back in June, Movie Dearest ran a poll asking for your votes on which gay-themed movie should be inducted into the National Film Registry this year, and Philadelphia was your choice. Well, the Library of Congress announced today this year's 25 inductees, and alas, the Tom Hanks AIDS drama was not on the list.

However, the NFR's Class of 2008 is not without some queer influences. In addition to the screen version of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and James Whales' The Invisible Man, there's the celluloid closet classic Johnny Guitar, starring Joan Crawford herself and directed by Nicholas Ray. And I suppose you could say Deliverance too ...

Aside from the experimental and amateur works that most people haven't heard of (let alone seen), the NFR's choices for the year (which now brings the total preserved films to an even 500) includes The Asphalt Jungle, A Face in the Crowd, Flower Drum Song, Hallelujah!, The Killers, The Pawnbroker, Sergeant York, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and The Terminator. See the comments section below for a quick look at all of this year's inductees.

Awards Watch: National Film Registry 2007

Annually since 1989, the National Film Preservation Board and the Librarian of Congress name 25 classic American films to be inducted into the National Film Registry. Prints of each movie, chosen for their cultural and historical significance, will now be "preserved for all time". With this year's selections, announced today, the number of films in the registry now totals 475.

The 2007 inductees run the gamut of film history, from the 1921 silent drama Tol'able David to 1990's Dances With Wolves, and range from blockbusters like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Back to the Future to little-known avant-garde, experimental, and even student films, such as Randal Kleiser's Peege.

Also included among this year's honorees are Steve McQueen's Bullitt; Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven; the all-star Grand Hotel; Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place; John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; the seminal crime drama The Naked City; Bette Davis' Now, Voyager; Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!; Robert Benchley’s The Sex Life of the Polyp; Harry Langdon's The Strong Man; Walt Disney's Three Little Pigs; Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men; George Cukor's The Women and William Wyler's Wuthering Heights.

For a quick look at this year's NFR selections, see the comments section below.

Links via Loc.gov/film.