Every year, the Library of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry. This year, they’re honoring silent films, documentaries and the story of some scientists who ain’t afraid of no ghost.
“Making Ghostbusters was one of the great joys of my life,” said director Ivan Reitman in a statement. “It’s an honor to know that a movie that begins with a ghost in a library now has a spot on the shelves of the Library of Congress. It’s humbling to be part of a collection of extraordinary films that I have loved all my life.”
The Library chooses films that “epitomize the diversity and richness of the nation’s cinematic heritage, have been identified as motion pictures that deserve to be preserved because of their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance.” The films must be at least 10 years old and can vary in genre in style, as with the inclusion of educational fare like the 1946 film The Story of Menstruation.
The full list of this year’s 25 chosen films is as follows:
Being There (1979)
Black and Tan (1929)
Dracula (Spanish language version) (1931)
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975)
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
A Fool There Was (1915)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
Humoresque (1920)
Imitation of Life (1959)
The Inner World of Aphasia (1968)
John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
The Old Mill (1937)
Our Daily Bread (1934)
Portrait of Jason (1967)
Seconds (1966)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Sink or Swim (1990)
The Story of Menstruation (1946)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
Top Gun (1986)
Winchester ’73 (1950)