How 900 Films Join the National Film Registry Each Year
The Librarian of Congress picks 25 films yearly from public nominations and expert advice for America's official film preservation list. Here's the process.
Each year, the Librarian of Congress announces which films will join the National Film Registry, the official list of motion pictures deemed worthy of preservation for the nation. The selection process balances public voting with expert judgment, uniting democracy with curatorial authority in a way unique to American cultural institutions. The Registry itself has no precedent in other countries; it stands as a distinctly American approach to deciding which films matter enough to preserve.
The Registry, established under the National Film Preservation Act of 1992 and codified in federal statute, has grown to hold over 900 feature films and works of all lengths. The annual selections reflect American cinema’s diversity: in 2024, the Registry welcomed everything from “Annabelle Serpentine Dance,” a silent film from 1895, to “The Social Network” from 2010, a contemporary drama about social media. The selections span documentaries about the AIDS crisis, films celebrating Native American life, early works by Black women directors, and landmark horror films.
The Statutory Framework and Eligibility
The National Film Registry rests on federal law. Under 2 USC 179m, enacted in 1996 and later amended in 2005 and 2008, the Librarian of Congress holds sole authority to select films for the Registry. The statute sets a strict ceiling: the Librarian shall not select more than 25 films in any calendar year. This limit, written into law, ensures that the Registry remains selective rather than expansive.
To qualify, a film must satisfy two basic requirements. First, it must be at least 10 years old—measured from its first publication. This 10-year waiting period is not arbitrary; it allows a film’s cultural impact and historical importance to become clear before the institution commits to preservation. Second, the film must still exist. This requirement is often described as requiring the film to be “extant,” meaning that a copy must survive somewhere, though not necessarily in good condition.
The significance standard itself is broad and deliberately so. Films must be deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to America’s film heritage. These three categories—cultural, historical, and aesthetic—encompass a wide range of works. A film need not be a commercial success or critical darling. It need not be a feature film. The Registry includes documentaries, newsreels, silent shorts, animated films, music videos, student films, experimental pieces, and home movies. If it was “originally created on film stock,” it may be considered. This breadth means that the Registry can honor films that document American society, films that broke aesthetic ground, and films that tell stories long excluded from the commercial mainstream.
Registry By Numbers
Federal law limits selections to 25 films per year under 2 USC 179m. Eligible films must be at least 10 years old. The Library of Congress has received thousands of public nominations annually in recent years; these are compiled into a preliminary ballot for the 44-member National Film Preservation Board to review. As of December 2024, 900 feature films and other works were inscribed in the Registry.
How the Public Gets Involved
The nomination process begins with ordinary Americans. The Library of Congress opens an annual call for public nominations, typically in summer. Using an online form, any person can recommend films for Registry inclusion. There are no requirements to work in film, own a production company, or hold any expertise. The process is intentionally democratic.
The volume of public response has grown substantially. In recent years, the Library has received thousands of nominations annually. Fans of a particular film, historians who believe a work documents an important moment, filmmakers seeking recognition for overlooked peers—all participate. The Library compiles these thousands of suggestions and works with specialists to identify the highest-polling titles. From this mass of public input, Library staff and curators prepare a preliminary ballot. This ballot becomes the menu from which the National Film Preservation Board and the Librarian will eventually choose.
The National Film Preservation Board’s Expert Review
The National Film Preservation Board serves as the primary advisory body. Comprising 44 members, the Board is deliberately broad in its composition.
The Board convenes to deliberate. Members receive the preliminary ballot and related materials prepared by Library specialists. Board members vote, debate, and make recommendations. The Board cannot select films unilaterally; instead, it advises the Librarian of Congress, who makes the final decision. This division of labor reflects Congress’s intent: expert voices guide the process, but the Librarian retains ultimate authority. The Board’s deliberations remain somewhat private; the Library does not routinely disclose how individual members voted or what arguments convinced them, though the final selections are public and announced in December.
What ‘Culturally, Historically, or Aesthetically Significant’ Means in Practice
The three-part significance test is applied case by case, and the Board’s selections reveal how these categories function. A film can be historically significant without being a financial or critical success. “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt,” a documentary, was added because it documents the AIDS crisis of the 1980s—a crucial and often marginalized moment in American history.
Recent selections also show the Board’s effort to recognize work by historically underrepresented filmmakers. In 2024, “Will” was selected. Several other 2024 selections included “Compensation,” “Ganja and Hess,” “Uptown Saturday Night,” and works in the “Zora Lathan Student Films.” These choices reflect a growing understanding that cultural significance includes the significance of whose stories get told and who gets to tell them. A film’s aesthetic importance—its influence on filmmaking technique, its innovation in visual language, its formal experimentation—can also secure its place. Aesthetic significance does not require audience size; a film seen by few but influential among filmmakers themselves may qualify.
The Board also considers a film’s market performance differently than the film industry does. “Spy Kids” was added in 2024. But “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” a low-budget horror film, was selected not because it was a blockbuster but because it influenced horror filmmaking and became a landmark of American cinema despite modest initial distribution. The Registry measures significance by enduring cultural impact, not opening-weekend box office.
A film can be historically significant without being a financial or critical success—the Board selects works that document important moments in American society, break aesthetic ground, or tell stories long excluded from the commercial mainstream.
Selection Timeline and the December Announcement
The calendar follows a predictable rhythm. Each year, the nomination window typically closes in mid-August. Summer nominations give the public months to reflect and make their suggestions before the deadline. After the August 15 closing, the Library compiles all submissions. Staff and specialists, often film historians and archivists at the Library of Congress, review these thousands of nominations and identify patterns and high-volume selections. They prepare the preliminary ballot and assemble background materials: plot summaries, production histories, cultural context, and notes on where prints survive.
The National Film Preservation Board meets and deliberates over this preliminary ballot. Board members, traveling from across the country, spend time discussing candidates in detail. After the Board votes and makes recommendations, the Librarian of Congress reviews the recommendations and confers with Board leadership and Library curators. The Librarian then makes final selections. The Librarian of Congress—speaking formally on behalf of the Library institution—announces the year’s selections in a public statement or press release; the 2024 selections were announced in mid-December 2024, while the most recent selections, covering 2025, were announced on January 29, 2026. The announcement names all 25 or fewer films selected that year and often includes remarks from the Librarian or senior Board members explaining why these films matter.
Preservation After Selection
Selection to the National Film Registry is not merely symbolic. When a film is selected, the Library of Congress takes concrete steps toward preservation. The institution works to “get the best possible copy of the film in its original format and store it in their vaults,” according to Library staff. These vaults are located at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, a climate-controlled facility kept cool and dry. Under proper conditions, films can “survive for hundreds of years there,” as archivists have noted.
The process of acquiring copies varies. For Hollywood studio films, the Library typically contacts the studio or production company and requests a donation. Many films already reside in the Library’s collection through copyright registration requirements that studios must meet. For older films, independent productions, or works where the rights holder is difficult to locate, the Library contacts preservationists, archives, universities, and foundations. When necessary, the Library may pay specialized archivists to create new 35-millimeter preservation copies, a costly process, or it may barter with other institutions using duplicate materials from its own collection.
However, selection does not guarantee immediate preservation. While inscription in the Registry can encourage archives, foundations and studios to work together toward preservation, the Registry itself contains no funding mechanism. Selection creates a priority and an incentive, but preservation work may take years, particularly for films without clear rights holders or for obscure works where no good copy survives. The Registry is therefore aspirational as well as functional: a declaration of what should be preserved, backed by institutional commitment but requiring the cooperation of studios, archives, and foundations to complete the actual restoration work.
Photo: William Henry Jackson · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
