"Star Trek II," "Dirty Dancing" among films named to National Film Registry

“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the Eddie Murphy action-comedy “Beverly Hills Cop,” the romantic drama “Dirty Dancing,” “The Social Network,” about the founding of Facebook, and the Coen Brothers’ modern western “No Country for Old Men,” are among the films named today to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, to be preserved for future generations.

Each year since 1989, the Library has selected 25 motion pictures to be preserved given their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to America’s film heritage. The Registry includes movies from all genres, after being nominated by filmmakers, academics and fans.

Also among this year’s additions: Cheech & Chong’s stoner comedy “Up in Smoke”; the James Cagney-Humphrey Bogart crime drama “Angels with Dirty Faces”; Andy Warhol’s underground classic “The Chelsea Girls”; the children’s fantasy-adventure “Spy Kids”; and the gruesome horror film “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

The full list of this year’s additions reflects advances in film technology, from the earliest (an Edison short from 1895 called “Annabelle Serpentine Dance”) to the most recent (David Fincher’s slickly edited and shot “Social Network,” from 2010), as well as the breadth of the American experience. Edward James Olmos stars in two Registry additions (“American Me” and “My Family/Mi familia”) depicting the lives of Latino immigrants, while “Powwow Highway” tells a story of Native Americans, and “Compensation” dramatizes the lives of deaf characters.

“Films reflect our nation’s history and culture and must be preserved in our national library for generations to come,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “We’re honored by the responsibility to add 25 diverse new films to the National Film Registry each year as we work to preserve our cultural Heritage.”

On Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies will screen a selection of this year’s Registry additions. Select titles are also freely available online in the Library’s National Screening Room.

Below is a complete list of this year’s additions. 

To submit nominations for films to be inducted in the Registry, click here.

2024 additions to the National Film Registry

“American Me” (1992)

In his first film as director, Edward James Olmos stars as a prison gang leader who, upon his release, tries to maintain his hold on criminal organizations and drug trafficking in Los Angeles.

“Angels With Dirty Faces” (1938)

Once the Hays Office decided in the early 1930s that movies had become too violent and licentious, bad guys either had to make good for their crimes, or pay the ultimate price. No longer could James Cagney break the law and get away with it! Director Michael Curtiz’s film about childhood friends who follow different paths — Cagney, as gangster Rocky Sullivan, and Pat O’Brien, as Father Connolly — offers a redemptive tale in which young hoodlums idolize Rocky. But when the condemned criminal is being led to the execution chamber, his change of heart — pretending to die a coward’s death — offers a way out for the impressionable youth. One of Cagney’s best performances, the film also features Humphrey Bogart as a crooked lawyer, Ann Sheridan, and the Dead End Kids (whose Hollywood careers would turn from kitchen sink drama to slapstick comedy).

“Annabelle Serpentine Dance” (a.k.a. “Serpentine Dance – Annabelle”) (1895)

This early Edison short film captures dancer Annabelle Moore maneuvering fabric-wings. Several versions of the film were released, including some with color tints.

“Beverly Hills Cop” (1984)

Eddie Murphy had already appeared in two hit films — “48 HRS.,” opposite Nick Nolte, and “Trading Places,” pairing off against Dan Aykroyd — but in “Beverly Hills Cop” Murphy carried the film on his own as Detroit detective Axel Foley, a fish-out-of-water who has gone to Los Angeles on the trail of a killer. Buoyed by Murphy’s screen charisma and Harold Faltermeyer’s electronic score, the mix of action and comedy was a blockbuster, a formula carried forth in three sequels starring Murphy.

“The Chelsea Girls” (1966)

Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey’s 16mm feature was a proto-typical underground movie — heavily improvised, with rough edits (or no edits), multiple and split screens, and a leisurely 3.5-hour length. Being banned in Boston at least added to its allure. Today, the film, set in the landmark Chelsea Hotel in New York City, and featuring Nico, Ondine, Brigid Berlin, International Velvet, Mario Montez, Mary Woronov, Dorothy Dean and other Warhol “Superstars,” offers a unique time capsule of the bohemian 1960s.

“Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt” (1989)

The origin of the NAMES Project Aids Memorial Quilt — a tapestry of stories memorializing those who died from HIV/AIDS, as well as a society that had failed them — is told in this Oscar-winning feature documentary, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, that also earned a Peabody Award.

“Compensation” (1999)

The debut feature of director Zeinabu irene Davis tells two parallel love stories, set nearly a century apart, each involving a deaf woman and a hearing man diagnosed with a fatal disease. Michelle A. Banks (who is herself deaf) and John Earl Jelks play both couples, and their stories are illustrated with title cards and American Sign Language.

“Dirty Dancing” (1987)

At a 1960s Catskills resort, a teenage girl vacationing with family hits the dance floor with a hot instructor, and summers would never be the same. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze starred in the hit romance that earned the Jennifer Warnes-Bill Medley song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” an Oscar and a Grammy.

“Ganja and Hess” (1973)

Duane Jones, who played the lead in “Night of the Living Dead,” stars in this horror story in which an anthropologist studying ancient African cultures becomes a vampire. A low-budget tale that served as a metaphor for drug addiction, “Ganja and Hess” was directed by writer and playwright Bill Gunn, and was later remade by Spike Lee as “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus.”

“Invaders from Mars” (1953)

When little David McLean (Jimmy Hunt) wakes up in the middle of the night and witnesses a spaceship landing nearby, he tries to convince his dad it was real. But when dad returns from investigating the landing site, there’s something not quite right about him. And then, a similar change comes over his mother. What are those strange marks on the back of their necks? What’s poor little David to do? Fifties paranoia blends with stylish photography, cool-looking sets, and ridiculous Martian costumes in this nostalgic sci-fi tale directed by William Cameron Menzies.

“KoKo’s Earth Control” (1928)

A wild addition to the genre of apocalyptic cinema, this silent cartoon by Max and Dave Fleischer features Koko the Clown and his naughty dog Fitz, visiting the place that runs our planet’s weather. Alas, there is a lever that warns, if pulled, it will mean the end of the Earth! Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive primarily from the original nitrate negative, this is a hilarious take on the End Times — and the problem of pets that refuse to obey. Bad, BAD dog! [You can watch the restored film here.]

“My Family/Mi familia” (1995)

Directed by Gregory Nava (“The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez”), this emotional and tearful multi-generational story of Mexican immigrants settling in East Los Angeles stars Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos, Esai Morales, Elpidia Carrillo and Enrique Castillo.

“The Miracle Worker” (1962)

Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke each won Academy Awards for their performances in the true story of Anne Sullivan and her attempts to teach Helen Keller, a child deaf and blind since she was a toddler. Keller’s autobiography was originally adapted for television and later Broadway (Bancroft and Duke both starred in the stage version). Director Arthur Penn’s black-and-white film version preserved the actresses’ performances in a cooly unsentimental story of determination and human connection.

“My Own Private Idaho” (1991)

Gus Van Sant (“Drugstore Cowboy”) wrote and directed this haunting tale of friendship, loosely based on plays of Shakespeare, starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as street hustlers searching for family and connection.

“No Country for Old Men” (2007)

The Coen Brothers’ sharp precision and keen eye for irony is beautifully on display in this enthralling modern-day Western, in which Josh Brolin’s hunter comes across the scene of a drug deal gone very bad. Alas, that satchel containing mounds of currency with no living owner is just a little too tempting to pass by. Enter Javier Bardem’s sinister hit man, hot on Brolin’s trail, who will let nothing deter him from his prey. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel, the film won four Academy Awards, including best picture, best direction, and best supporting actor for Bardem, weird haircut and all.

“Powwow Highway” (1989)

A prize-winner at the Sundance Film Festival, Jonathan Wacks’ comic-drama was remarkable in its time for telling a humanistic story of Native Americans without resorting to stereotypes. Gary Farmer and A. Martinez star as former childhood friends who reconnect for a road trip in a dilapidated car, a journey that is by turns spiritual and criminal.

“The Pride of the Yankees” (1942)

An inspirational biopic of one of sports’ true legends, this story of New York Yankee Lou Gehrig, whose life came undone with a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (what came to become known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), stars Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright, and features several of Gehrig’s teammates (including Babe Ruth) as themselves. Cooper’s reenactment of Gehrig’s farewell speech at Yankee Stadium (in which he states, “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth”) became one of the actor’s most memorable moments.

“The Social Network” (2010)

Like the Akira Kurosawa classic “Rashomon,” “The Social Network” uses competing points of view to decipher the origins of Facebook, as told through legal depositions being filed years after the revolutionary website was born, by former friends now suing each other. Based on Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires,” David Fincher’s classic is a tale of genius, hubris and ethics, involving a paradox: A site founded on the notion of exclusivity which grew to host hundreds of millions of members. Starring Jessie Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, with Andrew Garfield, Max Minghella, Armie Hammer, and Justin Timberlake, and an Oscar-winning script by Aaron Sorkin. Oscars also went to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for their haunting score, and to editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall. 

“Spy Kids” (2001)

Writer-director Robert Rodriguez made a splash with his debut feature, “El Mariachi,” and followed with “Desperado” and “From Dusk till Dawn.” But for the fantasy “Spy Kids,” he connected with his inner kid, in a story about two children of secret agents who go out on a mission to rescue their captured parents. Starring Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino as mom-and-pop spies, and Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara as their budding young agents, the film was a hit, spawning a franchise (including a 3-D entry starring Sylvester Stallone).

“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982)

The first film of the “Star Trek” franchise to be inducted in the National Film Registry, it’s considered by most to be the best movie, in capturing both the zing of the original TV series and the camaraderie of the Enterprise crew. Directed by Nicholas Meyer, it’s a sequel of sorts to the 1967 episode “Space Seed,” in which a 20th century villain in hibernation is thawed out, stirring much interplanetary trouble. In “Wrath of Khan,” Ricardo Montalban returns in the role of Khan, who sets his sights not just on destroying worlds, but also in taking revenge against Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner). There is action galore, but it’s Kirk’s friendship with Spock (Leonard Nimoy) that gives this film its emotional heft.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)

Among exploitation movies, horror is a genre that has enticed many aspiring filmmakers with little money but lots of fake blood at hand. But Tobe Hooper’s grand guignol tale of a group of young people who find themselves at the wrong isolated farmhouse went far beyond typical drive-in fare. It would give rise to countless slasher films (from “Halloween” to “Friday the 13th”) in which a weapon-wielding bad guy (in this case Leatherface) ticks off cast members one by one. Nasty, bloody and weirdly funny, the film even found itself projected onto the screen of the Museum of Modern Art in New York — a fact it heralded in newspaper ads, as if that would give a low-budget horror film more street cred.

“Up in Smoke” (1978)

The counter-culture duo Cheech Marin & Tommy Chong had already released five successful comedy albums (including “Big Bambu” and “Los Cochinos”) when they dipped their toes into movies with this stoner comedy. Dipped their toes isn’t exactly accurate, though; they plunged head-first into a wild mélange of bits involving marijuana, LSD, hash, cocaine (or Ajax cleanser mistaken for cocaine), alcohol, and pills that are anybody’s guess what they are. “Up in Smoke” took in more than $100 million at the box office, leading to a string of Cheech & Chong films.

“Uptown Saturday Night” (1974)

Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, and director Sidney Poitier star in this action comedy in which victims of a robbery go in search of a stolen wallet containing a winning lottery ticket. With Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson, Roscoe Lee Browne and Rosalind Cash. Poitier directed two follow-up films starring himself and Cosby, “Let’s Do It Again” and “A Piece of the Action.”

“Will” (1981)

Cinematographer Jessie Maple directed this, the first independent feature helmed by an African American woman, in which a former athlete and coach (played by Obaka Adedunyo) struggles to overcome drug addiction.

Zora Lathan Student Films (1975-1976)

The democratic nature of the National Film Registry allows for the preservation of Hollywood studio features, independent films, industrial and advertising shorts, student films, and newsreels. The Registry has also preserved home movies, which capture American life in unfiltered and wholly revealing ways.  During her years as a film student in Chicago, Adaora “Zora” Lathan shot six short 16mm films documenting her family members — whimsical vignettes which she characterized as “artworks.”