Films in the National Film Registry (as of 2013)
There are 625 films deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and preserved in the Library of Congress. These films are not required to be feature-length, nor is it required to have been theatrically released. The Registry contains newsreels, silent films, experimental films, short subjects, films out of copyright protection, film serials, home films, documentaries, independent films, television films, and music videos. This list is in chronological order by the release date of each film (newest first). To those who truly appreciate not only great, but also important film, hopefully this will help you easily access information as to what each movie is about and see which ones you would most like to watch.
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625 titles
- DirectorBill MorrisonStarsTsuru AokiJulia CalhounMargaret CullingtonA meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.Induction year: 2013
- DirectorLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsKeanu ReevesLaurence FishburneCarrie-Anne MossWhen a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorPeter B. HuttonThe first part (winter) of a seasonal study of the Hudson river in New York.Induction year: 2010
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsWilliam H. MacyFrances McDormandSteve BuscemiMinnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.Induction year: 2006
- DirectorKary AntholisStarsGerda Weissmann KleinKurt KleinPeter ThomasHolocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein recounts her six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty, including the loss of her parents, brother, friends, home, possessions, and community.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorJanie GeiserA flat animated short from Janie Geiser centered around the contents of a red book.Induction year: 2009
- DirectorJohn LasseterStarsTom HanksTim AllenDon RicklesA cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's bedroom.Induction year: 2005
- DirectorHelen HillAn animated short film from Helen Hill which documents the life cycle of a group of chickens.Induction year: 2009
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.Induction year: 2013
- DirectorSteve JamesStarsWilliam GatesArthur AgeeEmma GatesA film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.Induction year: 2005
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsTom HanksRobin WrightGary SiniseThe history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.Induction year: 2011
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.Induction year: 2004
- DirectorHarold RamisStarsBill MurrayAndie MacDowellChris ElliottA narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.Induction year: 2006
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodGene HackmanMorgan FreemanRetired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner Ned Logan and a young man, The "Schofield Kid."Induction year: 2004
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDenzel WashingtonAngela BassettDelroy LindoBiographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.Induction year: 2010
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsTom HanksGeena DavisLori PettyTwo sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amid their own growing rivalry.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorRobert RodriguezStarsCarlos GallardoConsuelo GómezJaime de HoyosA traveling mariachi is mistaken for a murderous criminal and must hide from a gang bent on killing him.Induction year: 2011
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsRichard LinklaterRudy BasquezJean CaffeineA day in the life of Austin, Texas as the camera roams from place to place and provides a brief look at the overeducated, the social misfits, the outcasts and the oddballs.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.Induction year: 2011
- DirectorJulie DashStarsCora Lee DayAlva RogersBarbara OA languid, impressionistic story of three generations of Gullah women living on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902.Induction year: 2004
- DirectorJohn SingletonStarsCuba Gooding Jr.Laurence FishburneHudhail Al-AmirFollows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, dissecting questions of race, relationships, violence, and future prospects.Induction year: 2002
- DirectorGary TrousdaleKirk WiseStarsPaige O'HaraRobby BensonJesse CortiA prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman's love.Induction year: 2002
- DirectorEllen BrunoMade as a relief worker's master's thesis, this documentary chronicles the difficulties of rebuilding a community in post-Pol Pot Cambodia.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroRay LiottaJoe PesciThe story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.Induction year: 2000
- DirectorKevin CostnerStarsKevin CostnerMary McDonnellGraham GreeneLieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.Induction year: 2007
- DirectorPat O'NeillStarsJoel LorimenBeth BlockGeorge LockwoodA moving meditation on industrialization, focusing on the eerily desolate Owens Valley in California, made arid by the diversion of water from there to the city of Los Angeles.Induction year: 2008
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsJames SpaderAndie MacDowellPeter GallagherA sexually repressed woman's husband is having an affair with her sister. The arrival of a visitor with a rather unusual fetish changes everything.Induction year: 2006
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreRoger B. SmithRhonda BrittonAfter General Motors closes its factory in Flint, Michigan, eliminating 35,000 jobs, filmmaker Michael Moore undertakes a quixotic quest to interview General Motors' chairman, Roger B. Smith.Induction year: 2013
- DirectorAdam DavidsonStarsScotty BlochClebert FordBernard JohnsonA woman misses her train and buys lunch in a café. When she returns to her table, a man is eating her salad.Induction year: 2013
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDanny AielloOssie DavisRuby DeeOn the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.Induction year: 1999
- DirectorSarah ElderLeonard KamerlingA rare, intimate look at the spiritual and social life of the Yup'ik Eskimo people of Emmonak, Alaska - a culture centered around traditional gift-giving ceremonies featuring dances and drum music.Induction year: 2006
- DirectorErrol MorrisStarsRandall AdamsDavid HarrisGus RoseA film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.Induction year: 2001
- DirectorRamón MenéndezStarsEdward James OlmosEstelle HarrisMark PhelanThe story of Jaime Escalante, a high school teacher who successfully inspired his dropout-prone students to learn calculus.Induction year: 2011
- DirectorDavid AnspaughStarsGene HackmanBarbara HersheyDennis HopperA coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small-town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the state championship in 1950s Indiana.Induction year: 2001
- DirectorChuck WorkmanA montage of nearly 500 film clips from eight decades of American movies, made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Director's Guild of America.Induction year: 2009
- DirectorChick StrandThe economic and sexual politics of a Central America factory where artificial fruit is manufactured.Induction year: 2011
- DirectorRoss McElweeStarsRoss McElweeDede McElweeRoss McElwee Jr.Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee sets out to make a movie about Union General Sherman's March to the Sea towards the end of the American Civil War, but keeps getting sidetracked by his own love life.Induction year: 2000
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.Induction year: 2007
- DirectorRob EpsteinStarsHarvey FiersteinHarvey MilkAnne KronenbergA documentary of the successful career and assassination of San Francisco's first elected gay city supervisor.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsRob ReinerMichael McKeanChristopher GuestSpinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.Induction year: 2002
- DirectorJames CameronStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerLinda HamiltonMichael BiehnA human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.Induction year: 2008
- DirectorJim JarmuschStarsJohn LurieEszter BalintRichard EdsonA New Yorker's life is thrown into a tailspin when his younger cousin surprise-visits him, starting a strange, unpredictable adventure.Induction year: 2002
- DirectorBilly WoodberryStarsNate HardmanKaycee MooreAngela BurnettA dramatic look into the life of a family in Watts.Induction year: 2013
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsSam ShepardScott GlennEd HarrisThe U.S. space program's development from the breaking of the sound barrier to selection of the Mercury 7 astronauts, from a group of test pilots with a more seat-of-the-pants approach than the program's more cautious engineers preferred.Induction year: 2013
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsMichael JacksonOla RayForrest J. AckermanA night at the movies turns into a nightmare when Michael and his date are attacked by a hoard of bloodthirsty zombies - only a "Thriller" can save them now.Induction year: 2009
- DirectorGregory NavaStarsZaide Silvia GutiérrezDavid VillalpandoErnesto Gómez CruzAfter their family is killed in a government massacre, siblings Enrique and Rosa flee Guatemala and embark on a perilous journey to "El Norte": the United States.Induction year: 1995
- DirectorBob ClarkStarsPeter BillingsleyMelinda DillonDarren McGavinIn the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorGodfrey ReggioStarsEdward AsnerPat BenatarJerry BrownA collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology.Induction year: 2000
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsDustin HoffmanJessica LangeTeri GarrMichael Dorsey, an unsuccessful actor, disguises himself as a woman in order to get a role on a trashy hospital soap.Induction year: 1998
- DirectorAmy HeckerlingStarsSean PennJennifer Jason LeighJudge ReinholdA group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.Induction year: 2005
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHenry ThomasDrew BarrymorePeter CoyoteA troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.Induction year: 1994
- DirectorWayne WangStarsWood MoyMarc HayashiLaureen ChewTwo cab drivers search San Francisco's Chinatown for the mysterious Chan, who disappeared with their $4000.Induction year: 1995
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.Induction year: 1993
- DirectorNathaniel DorskyStarsNathaniel DorskyJerome HilerIt is a "silent tone poem" recording the daily events of Dorsky and his partner, artist Jerome Hiler around Lake Owassa in New Jersey and in Manhattan.Induction year: 2012
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKaren AllenPaul FreemanIn 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.Induction year: 1999
- DirectorIrvin KershnerStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherAfter the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.Induction year: 2010
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroCathy MoriartyJoe PesciThe life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.Induction year: 1990
- DirectorConnie FieldStarsLola WeixelMargaret WrightLyn ChildsDocumentary about women working in factories during WWII and resultant loss of jobs after the war. Five women tell their stories. Fascinating clips of racist, sexist propaganda of the era.Induction year: 1996
- DirectorLes BlankStarsAnzonini Del PuertoKathleen BendelHarrod BlankA documentary on the history of garlic. Blank interviews chefs, garlic lovers, and historians about the their love of the 'stinking rose.'Induction year: 2004
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsBurt LancasterSusan SarandonKate ReidIn a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.Induction year: 2003
- 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.Induction year: 2010
- DirectorJohn SaylesStarsBruce MacDonaldMaggie RenziAdam LeFevreSeven former college friends, along with a few new friends, gather for a weekend reunion at a summer house in New Hampshire to reminisce about the good old days, when they got arrested on the way to a protest in Washington, DC.Induction year: 1997
- DirectorMartin RittStarsSally FieldBeau BridgesRon LeibmanA young single mother and textile worker agrees to help unionize her mill despite the problems and dangers involved.Induction year: 2011
- DirectorJames FrawleyStarsJim HensonFrank OzJerry NelsonKermit and his newfound friends trek across America to find success in Hollywood, but a frog legs merchant is after Kermit.Induction year: 2009
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonMariel HemingwayThe life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.Induction year: 2001
- DirectorCarroll BallardStarsKelly RenoMickey RooneyTeri GarrAfter being shipwrecked with a magnificent horse off the coast of Africa in the 1940s, a boy bonds with the stallion, and trains him to race after their rescue.Induction year: 2002
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.Induction year: 2000
- DirectorBob FosseStarsRoy ScheiderJessica LangeAnn ReinkingDirector/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.Induction year: 2001
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtThe crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.Induction year: 2002
- DirectorCharles BurnettStarsHenry G. SandersKaycee MooreCharles BracySet in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he works so hard to support.Induction year: 1990
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsJohn BelushiKaren AllenTom HulceAt a 1962 college, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.Induction year: 2001
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsDonald PleasenceJamie Lee CurtisTony MoranFifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.Induction year: 2006
- DirectorMichael CiminoStarsRobert De NiroChristopher WalkenJohn CazaleAn in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.Induction year: 1996
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsRichard GereBrooke AdamsSam ShepardA hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.Induction year: 2007
- DirectorGeorge LucasStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherLuke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.Induction year: 1989
- DirectorCharles EamesRay EamesStarsPhilip MorrisonBeginning with a shot of a couple enjoying a picnic, then zooming out incrementally by powers of ten, the film offers a glimpse of everything from the edge of the known universe to the molecules on a person's hand.Induction year: 1998
- DirectorJohn BadhamStarsJohn TravoltaKaren Lynn GorneyBarry MillerAnxious about his future after high school, a 19-year-old Italian-American from Brooklyn tries to escape the harsh reality of his bleak family life by dominating the dance floor at the local disco.Induction year: 2010
- DirectorGeorge KucharStarsGeorge KucharBarbara LapsleyStudent Barbara Lapsley had wanted a short film to launch her acting career, and the class at the San Francisco Art Institute obliged by staging a classic Hollywood screen test.Induction year: 2007
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsJack NanceCharlotte StewartAllen JosephHenry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.Induction year: 2004
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRichard DreyfussFrançois TruffautTeri GarrRoy Neary, an Indiana electric lineman, finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches.Induction year: 2007
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonTony RobertsAlvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.Induction year: 1992
- DirectorJim FreemanGreg MacGillivrayStarsEllen BryJennifer Kaye EvansPeter WalkerProduced as the premier presentation for the Theatre of the National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution, takes the viewer on an aerial tour of America from a balloon ascension in the 1800's to a venture into space.Induction year: 1995
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroJodie FosterCybill ShepherdA mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.Induction year: 1994
- DirectorJohn G. AvildsenStarsSylvester StalloneTalia ShireBurt YoungA small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.Induction year: 2006
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodSondra LockeChief Dan GeorgeMissouri farmer Josey Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.Induction year: 1996
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsFaye DunawayWilliam HoldenPeter FinchA television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit, but finds that his message may be difficult to control.Induction year: 2000
- DirectorBarbara KoppleStarsJohn L. LewisCarl HornNorman YarboroughA heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.Induction year: 1990
- DirectorLes BlankStarsRamiro CavazosLos Alegres De TeranLos Pinguinos del Norte"Chulas Fronteras" examines the origins and social significance of the traditional Tejano (or 'Tex-Mex') music that developed along the U.S.-Mexico border.Induction year: 1993
- 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.Induction year: 2010
- DirectorSally CruikshankStarsSally CruikshankKim DeitchQuasi, a duck, spends the day at a bizarre amusement park with fellow duck Anita and a robot named Rollo, but his rude and annoying behavior soon becomes impossible for his companions to tolerate.Induction year: 2009
- DirectorEllen HovdeAlbert MayslesDavid MayslesStarsEdith Bouvier BealeEdith 'Little Edie' Bouvier BealeBrooks HyersMeet a mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, reclusive cousins of Jackie O., managing to thrive together amid the decay and disorder of their East Hampton, NY, mansion, making for an eerily ramshackle echo of the American Camelot.Induction year: 2010
- DirectorJim SharmanStarsTim CurrySusan SarandonBarry BostwickA newly-engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must seek shelter at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.Induction year: 2005
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsJack NicholsonLouise FletcherMichael BerrymanIn the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.Induction year: 1993
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsKeith CarradineKaren BlackRonee BlakleyOver the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated people prepare for a political convention.Induction year: 1992
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRoy ScheiderRobert ShawRichard DreyfussWhen a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.Induction year: 2001
- DirectorJoan Micklin SilverStarsSteven KeatsCarol KaneMel HowardIn 1896, a Russian Jewish woman immigrates to New York's Lower East Side to reunite with her Americanized husband, but has difficulty assimilating.Induction year: 2011
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsAl PacinoJohn CazalePenelope AllenThree amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does.Induction year: 2009
- DirectorMimi PickeringA look at the Buffalo Creek disaster, which occurred when a coal-waste dam collapsed. Includes interviews with survivors, mining officials, and union representatives, along with footage of the flood itself.Induction year: 2005
- DirectorDwight CoreGeorge IngmireStarsDwight Core Jr.Dwight CoreA short documenting the life of a mentally handicapped boy and a family who struggles to provide what's best for him.Induction year: 2006