National Film Registry

Two iconic science fiction films are among the 25 films added to the National Film Registry today. “We’re always a little short on the science fiction genre, and this year we wanted to get more entries from the 1970s,” National Film Preservation Board staff director Stephen Leggett said when announcing that Back to the Future (1985) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are now part of the Library of Congress.

Each year, hundreds of titles are nominated by the public. The librarian makes the final selection after reviewing public input and discussing the films with the members of the National Film Preservation Board and the Library’s staff. The films selected aren’t necessarily the “best” or most popular films made, the Library noted, but are chosen for their artistic character, historical significance or their reflection of both the good and bad sides of American culture.

Here’s the complete list of this years inductees:

Back to the Future (1985)
Bullitt (1968)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Glimpse of the Garden (1957)
Grand Hotel (1932)
The House I Live In (1945)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Mighty Like a Moose (1926)
The Naked City (1948)
Now, Voyager (1942)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Our Day (1938)
Peege (1972)
The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928)
The Strong Man (1926)
Three Little Pigs (1933)
Tol’able David (1921)
Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son (1969-71)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Women (1939)
Wuthering Heights (1939)