Home Alone, Love & Basketball, Apollo 13, 12 Years a Slave, and The Nightmare Before Christmas are among the 25 films chosen to be preserved by the Library of Congress National Film Registry. 2023’s selection also includes Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Lady and the Tramp, Desperately Seeking Susan, and Fame.
“Films are an integral piece of America’s cultural heritage, reflecting stories of our nation for more than 125 years. We are proud to add 25 diverse films to the National Film Registry as we preserve our history through film,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “We’re grateful to the film community for collaborating with the Library of Congress in our goal to preserve the heritage of cinema for generations to come.”
The new additions date back to 1921 and bring the total number of films included in the registry to 875. According to the Library of Congress, the films are chosen for “their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage.”
Films Selected for the 2023 National Film Registry
¡Alambrista! (1977)
¡Alambrista! is the powerfully emotional story of Roberto, a Mexican national working as a migrant laborer in the United States to send money back to his wife and newborn. Director Robert M. Young’s sensitive screenplay refuses to indulge in simplistic pieties, presenting us with a world in which exploitation and compassion coexist in equal measure. The film immerses us in Roberto’s world as he moves across vast landscapes, meeting people he can’t be sure are friend or threat, staying one step ahead of immigration officials.
Apollo 13 (1995)
The extreme challenges involved in space travel present compelling cinema storylines, and one cannot imagine a more harrowing scenario than the near tragic Apollo 13 space mission. Director Ron Howard’s retelling is equally meticulous and emotional, a master class in enveloping the audience into a complicated technological exercise in life-and-death problem-solving.
Based on the 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, Apollo 13 blends skillful editing, crafty special effects, a James Horner score, and a well-paced script to detail the quick-thinking heroics of both the astronaut crew and NASA technicians as they improvise and work through unprecedented situations. The talented cast includes Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan.
Bamboozled (2000)
Mixing elements of A Face in the Crowd, The Producers, Network, and Putney Swope, Spike Lee’s Bamboozled showcases his unique talents, here blending dark comedy and satire exposing hypocrisy. An African American TV executive (Damon Wayans) grows tired of his ideas being rejected by his insincere white boss, who touts himself with an “I am Black People” type of vibe. To get out of this untenable situation, Wayans proposes an idea he feels will surely get him fired: a racist minstrel show featuring African American performers donning blackface. The show becomes a smash hit while at the same time sparking outrage, including militant groups leading to violence.
As with the best satire, the focus is not on believable plot but rather how the story reveals the ills of society, in this case how Hollywood and television have mistreated African Americans over the decades.
Bohulano Family Film Collection (1950s-1970s)
Delfin Paderes Bohulano and Concepcion Moreno Bohulano recorded their family life for more than 20 years. Shot primarily in Stockton, California, their collection documents the history of the Filipino community during a period of significant immigration. They were involved in the local Filipino-American community, including the building of Stockton’s new Filipino Center in the early 1970s. The movies record community events, family gatherings, trips to New York City, Atlantic City, and Washington, D.C., as well as the family’s 1967 visit to the Philippines.
Cruisin’ J-Town (1975)
Duane Kubo’s documentary tells the story of the jazz fusion band Hiroshima, including their attempts to blend art and identity, the group’s roots and influence in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles, and the burgeoning pulse of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the early 1970s. A highlight in the film is a cross-cultural jam with Hiroshima and the Chicano performing arts company El Teatro Campesino.
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
As a follow-up to her acclaimed low-budget indie Smithereens, Susan Seidelman directed this hip screwball romp involving personal ads, mistaken identity and only-in-New-York characters. The film features Rosanna Arquette as an unhappy New Jersey housewife and Madonna as a Lower East Side bohemian free spirit named Susan; Arquette’s deep immersion into Susan’s strange world helps Arquette recharge her life and cure its ills.
Dinner at Eight (1933)
Director George Cukor has many works on the National Film Registry and the racy, pre-Code comedy/drama Dinner at Eight illustrates why. Cukor knew how to adapt plays into film, removing their staginess to make them work well on film and adding wit. Cukor also was a master on how best to use the strengths of his actors and handle egos. This ensemble film about high society features an all-star cast, arguably one of the greatest assembled to that point in cinema history, and it became a major attraction and event in the early sound era.
Edge of the City (1957)
Edge of the City features superb performances by John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier in a psychological drama set among New York City railroad workers. Based on a live television drama written expressly for Poitier by Robert Alan Aurthur, Edge of the City follows Cassavetes as a troubled Army deserter who finds trust in others, maturity in himself, and reintegration into society after Poitier, playing a stevedore foreman, befriends him.
Praised by the NAACP for its message of racial brotherhood, this first feature of blacklisted television director Martin Ritt offers finely delineated performances by Ruby Dee, Kathleen Maguire and Jack Warden. Critic Stanley Crouch called the film “one of the highest of the high points in Poitier’s career,” noting “an almost heartbreaking effect in his absolute freedom from the stereotypic, moving with such vitality through so many more moods than would be expected of a Black character then or now.”
Fame (1980)
Alan Parker’s teen musical drama follows the lives of students at New York City’s High School of the Performing Arts as they tackle the demanding environment and the issues young students face. The musical numbers stylistically often resemble music videos in a pre-MTV world, and Fame influenced other classic 80’s musicals like Footloose, Flashdance, and Dirty Dancing. Irene Cara belts out the rousing title song.
Helen Keller in Her Story (1954)
Nancy Hamilton’s Academy Award-winning documentary tells the story of Helen Keller from her birth to early 70s. Keller lived for 14 more years after the film. The documentary came about long after Keller became an international speaker on behalf of both disabled rights and the United States. It uses news footage, photographs, interviews and original sequences to tell her story, as well as a more day-in-the-life approach.
Home Alone (1990)
The young and deeply expressive Macaulay Culkin became a superstar thanks to this 1990 mega-hit that has become embedded into American culture as a holiday classic. Left home alone at Christmas time, a plucky youngster uses his creativity and wit to stave off two bumbling burglars. John Hughes (at that time best known for his teen comedies) fashioned the inventive script while Chris Columbus directed the film for maximum cross-generational appeal. The cast also includes Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci, John Heard, Roberts Blossom and Catherine O’Hara.
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
This exquisitely animated love story between a spoiled cocker spaniel and a mutt was arguably the most mature animation and love story created until then by Disney Studios. It also marked a technological innovation for Disney. In addition to standard theatrical formats, Disney released the film in the wide screen CinemaScope process, in part to keep people going to the theaters following the advent of television. One of the studio’s most beloved animated works, this unlikely love story is made memorable by endearing songs, excellent voice talents (which included Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Verna Felton, Bob Baucom, Peggy Lee and Stan Freberg) and iconic moments including a kiss involving spaghetti.
The Lighted Field (1987)
The Lighted Field is one of the avant-garde masterworks from Andrew Noren. “I’m a light thief and a shadow bandit,” Noren (1943 – 2015) once said. “The lovers, light and shadow, and their offspring space and time are my themes, working with their particularities is my passion and delight.”
The Lighted Field (1987, 62 mins, silent, B&W, 16mm) is a highly personal work in which Noren uses archival imagery combined with urban and domestic images that are infused with his love of light play and evoke a twinned sense of vitality and mortality.
Love & Basketball (2000)
For her feature film directorial debut, Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed the engaging Love and Basketball, which follows a boy and girl as they pursue their basketball careers from childhood to adults, sharing a mutual affection for the game and an eventual love for each other. Unforgettable and inspiring, the film has been praised as a refreshing new take on the rom-com genre and has had an enduring impact and ongoing resonance with women athletes and young people.
Matewan (1987)
Bringing to light a little-remembered moment in labor history, John Sayles’ Matewan dramatizes efforts in 1920 to unionize a West Virginia company town and the bloody battle that followed between strikers and coal company thugs. Sayles incorporates elements from related labor struggles into the story to show how Black migrants and European immigrants hired as scabs often united with local miners. Structured as a Western, the film examines collective nonviolence as a strategy to combat ruthless exploitation within an individualistic culture animated by blood feuds.
Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994)
Freida Lee Mock’s Oscar-winning documentary tells the story of Chinese-American artist and architect Maya Lin. As a Yale University student, Lin won a nationwide design competition to create the new Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. A firestorm of controversy erupted over the selection of Lin’s design, with critics citing her age, lack of architectural experience, her Asian American ancestry, the design’s black granite, and what they saw as something overly bleak, buried in the ground, rather than a heroic tribute.
Lin eloquently defended herself, and the stark, simple elegant beauty of her V-shaped design pointing toward the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument won the day. The highly visited site has become a cathartic, emotional experience for countless Americans. The film explores themes about artistic freedom, creativity, public art and politics.
A Movie Trip Through Filmland (1921)
This educational and highly informative film about the production of motion picture film stock and the impact of movies on a global audience was shot at Kodak Park, the headquarters of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. The film begins with a gathering of animated multi-national characters as they attend the “International Convention of Movie Fans.” The animated curtains part and the audience sees Kodak Park and a short movie detailing every step of the film manufacturing process, including statistics on how much raw cotton, silver, and water is used to create the 147,000 miles of film stock produced in 1921 (enough to circle the globe).
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The king of dark whimsy, Tim Burton won over an even larger (and decidedly younger) crowd with this delightful stop-motion animated offering. Jack Skellington, whose giant pumpkin head rests precariously on top of his rail-thin body, is the king of Halloween Town; one year he dreams of bringing a little Christmas magic to his humble hamlet.
Conceived and produced by Burton (with direction by Henry Selick), Nightmare features creative set design to construct an imaginary world, songs by Danny Elfman and the voice talents of Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens and Glenn Shadix. It has become both a Yuletide and Halloween tradition for adults, kids, hipsters, and many Halloween fanatics.
Passing Through (1977)
A key figure in the LA Rebellion film movement, director Larry Clark uses Passing Through as a rumination on the central importance of jazz in African-American culture and the attempts of others to appropriate this legacy for profit. Released from prison, an African-American jazz artist refuses to rejoin the music industry he feels is controlled by white mobsters and corporate interests. Instead, he seeks to find his grandfather and musician mentor in order to preserve his artistic integrity and rediscover the creative and social possibilities of jazz.
Queen of Diamonds (1991)
This landmark work by experimental filmmaker Nina Menkes was filmed on location in Las Vegas. Menkes’ sister and collaborator, Tinka Menkes, plays an alienated blackjack dealer living and working in Sin City. The film takes a close look at the desolation of daytime Vegas, contrasting the lights, noise and life of the city to the quiet, lonely reality of its residents. Nina expresses her unique style through the use of long takes and extended periods of silence to convey her character’s solitary life in the Nevada desert.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Science fiction film sequels sometimes fail because the original reveals the stunning main secrets, thus reducing the awe and surprise factors in future installments. Not so with Terminator 2. Director James Cameron retained the many virtues of the original and added a deft script with more nuanced characters and plot twists, a large budget, and cutting-edge special effects for an even more chilling story revealing the bleak future portended in the original.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mission changes from ending the future of humanity to ensuring its survival, from killing the mother to protecting the son from an assassin adept at quicksilver. The film also marked somewhat of a technical milestone in the transition from practical to CGI special effects.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
One of the key films of the 2000s and winner of the Best Picture Oscar, 12 Years a Slave offers a raw, visceral look at slavery on a Louisiana plantation. Directed by Steve McQueen, the film is based on the 1853 memoir of the same name by Solomon Northup, an African American free man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery for 12 years before regaining his freedom. In addition to the Best Picture Oscar, the film also won for Best Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley), and Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong’o).
20 Feet from Stardom (2013)
Morgan Neville directed this fascinating, Oscar-winning documentary on back-up singers, the unsung musical workhorse heroes who provide musical harmony and essential contributions to famous songs while lurking in the shadows. The film features interviews with prominent back-up singers such as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill. interspersed with archival footage from artists such as David Bowie.
The Wedding Banquet (1993)
A ground-breaking romantic comedy, Ang Lee’s second film focuses on the cultural clashes between East and West, traditional vs. modern lifestyles. To satisfy his parents back in Taiwan and their desire that he get married, a gay Taiwanese American immigrant in New York has a marriage of convenience with a mainland Chinese woman. Complications ensue when the parents decide to visit and meet the bride.
The unconventional family trio (gay couple/paper wife) works to create a believable façade. Both hilarious and poignant, the film glides effortlessly between various genres.
We’re Alive (1974)
In 1974, three female UCLA graduate students, Michie Gleason, Christine Lesiak and Kathy Levitt, led a video workshop at the California Institution for Women, then the largest women’s prison in the U.S. What emerged from six months of roundtable discussions — taped by the incarcerated participants — is We’re Alive, a 49-minute documentary of astonishing power. Simultaneously anonymous and intimate, the women are unsparing in their condemnation of the dehumanization of the carceral state while at the same time exemplifying a triumphal dignity (alive, indeed). The film is a blueprint for prison reform and thus, unfortunately, as timely today as it was then.
Statements from the Filmmakers, Courtesy of the Library of Congress:
- “It’s a very honest, heartfelt reflection of something that was very American, which was the space program in that time and what it meant to the country and to the world,” Howard told the Library of Congress. The technical advisor on the film was Capt. David Scott, an astronaut who went to the moon, gave Howard this statement: “He said you have a chance to tell people what it was like within the framework of a narrative that is entertaining. You have the chance to really get it right and let people know what the Apollo era was all about. We took that very seriously.”
- “A great deal of this film was autobiographical,” Gina Prince-Bythewood said in an interview about Love & Basketball. “Monica’s character, growing up as an athlete, all the feelings she felt, feeling ‘othered’ and different as if something’s wrong with her because she loves sports. All those were things that I had to deal with growing up, being a female athlete and with my parents.”
- “Slavery for me was a subject matter that hadn’t been sort of given enough recognition within the narrative of cinema history,” said Steve McQueen on 12 Years a Slave. “I wanted to address it for that reason, but also because it was a subject which had so much to do with how we live now. It wasn’t just something which was dated. It was something which is living and breathing, because you see the evidence of slavery today.”
- “I didn’t make the movie to be influential, but it was,” said The Wedding Banquet‘s Ang Lee. “I see since the movie, whether it’s cross-culture or gay issues, some major breakthroughs, certainly in Taiwan and the Chinese community because the movie was well-liked. It just eased into people’s lives quite naturally.”
- “It’s my fourth decade of filmmaking, and I don’t remember saying to myself, ‘Don’t do this because the audience might not like it,’” said Bamboozled‘s Spike Lee. “And there were more cases where audiences did not like stuff but that did not matter to me because I was showing the truth as I see it.”
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