National Film Registry
This is my most accurate guide to the films that are currently preserved in the National Film Registry. Established in 1988 by the National Film Preservation Board, their sole purpose is to preserve American made or American produced films that are either culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. They currently hold at least 680 feature films, 250 short films, two TV movies, one TV special, one music video, and one direct to video that range a span of 122 years from 1891 to 2013.
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- DirectorDelmer DavesStarsGlenn FordVan HeflinFelicia FarrBroke small-time rancher Dan Evans is hired by the stagecoach line to put big-time captured outlaw leader Ben Wade on the 3:10 train to Yuma but Wade's gang tries to free him.Selected in 2012.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsMaxine McNairWalter CronkiteChris McNairA documentary of the notorious racial terrorist1963 bombing by the Ku Klux Klan of the African American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement, which killed four young girls.Selected in 2017.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsJanet GaynorCharles FarrellBen BardA street cleaner saves a young woman's life, and the pair slowly fall in love until war intervenes.Titled "Seventh Heaven"; Selected in 1995.
- DirectorNathan JuranStarsKerwin MathewsKathryn GrantRichard EyerWhen a princess is shrunken by an evil wizard, Sinbad must undertake a quest to an island of monsters to cure her and prevent a war.Selected in 2008.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsHenry FondaLee J. CobbMartin BalsamThe jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.Selected in 2007.
- DirectorSteve McQueenStarsChiwetel EjioforMichael Kenneth WilliamsMichael FassbenderIn the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.Selected in 2023.
- DirectorJames BenningShots of 13 great lakes in the USA, with each shot containing half water and half sky or land.Selected in 2014.
- DirectorMorgan NevilleStarsDarlene LoveMerry ClaytonLisa FischerBackup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead, until now.Selected in 2023.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsWarner BaxterBebe DanielsGeorge BrentWhen the leading lady of a Broadway musical breaks her ankle, she is replaced by a young unknown actress, who becomes the star of the show.Selected in 1998.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterWhen a mysterious artifact is uncovered on the Moon, a spacecraft manned by two humans and one supercomputer is sent to Jupiter to find its origins.Selected in 1991.
- DirectorStuart PatonStarsAllen HolubarDan HanlonEdna PendletonA French professor and his daughter accompany Captain Nemo on an adventure aboard a submarine.Selected in 2016.
- DirectorCharles BartonWalter LantzStarsBud AbbottLou CostelloLon Chaney Jr.The Wolf Man tries to warn a dimwitted porter that Dracula wants his brain for Frankenstein monster's body.Selected in 2001.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsKirk DouglasJan SterlingRobert ArthurFrustrated former journalist Chuck Tatum now working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about trading post owner Leo Minosa trapped in a cave to rekindle Chuck's career, but the story soon escalates into a media circus.Selected in 2017.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsSpencer TracyKatharine HepburnJudy HollidayDomestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.Selected in 1992.
- DirectorMichael CurtizWilliam KeighleyStarsErrol FlynnOlivia de HavillandBasil RathboneWhen Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.Selected in 1995.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartKatharine HepburnRobert MorleyIn WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.Selected in 1994.
- DirectorJim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry ZuckerStarsRobert HaysJulie HagertyLeslie NielsenAfter the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.Selected in 2010.
- DirectorRobert M. YoungStarsDomingo AmbrizTrinidad SilvaLinda GillenAfter the birth of his first child, Roberto, a young Mexican man slips across the border into the United States. Seeking work to support his family back home, he finds that working hard is not enough.Selected in 2023.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtAfter investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.Selected in 2002.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsBette DavisAnne BaxterGeorge SandersSeemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingenue Eve Harrington insinuates herself into the lives of aging Broadway star Margo Channing and her circle of theater friends in this Oscar-winning story.Selected in 1990.
- DirectorRobert RossenStarsBroderick CrawfordJohn IrelandJoanne DruThe rise and fall of a corrupt politician who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.Selected in 2001.
- DirectorGeorge C. StoneyStarsMary ColeyConceived as an educational film for rural midwives, the film presents a beautifully humane profile of the life and work of the midwife "Miss Mary" Coley.Selected in 2002.
- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsDustin HoffmanRobert RedfordJack Warden"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.Selected in 2010.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsLew AyresLouis WolheimJohn WrayA German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.Selected in 1990.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsJane WymanRock HudsonAgnes MooreheadAn upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.Selected in 1995.