National Film Registry Announces 2009 Selections

Al Pacino in Sidney Lumet's DOG DAY AFTERNOON.  Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Al Pacino in Sidney Lumet's DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, today announced the films to be added this year to the National Film Registry. Each year since 1989, twenty-five films of cultural, historical or aesthetic significance are selected to be preserved for posterity by the National Film Preservation Board. The current list brings the total to five-hundred and twenty-five films.

Michael Jackson’s revolutionary short film “Thriller,” directed by John Landis, Sergio Leone’s epic Once Upon a Time in the West and Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino as the impromptu bank robber Sonny, were among this year’s inductees.

The other additions for 2009:

The Exiles (1961)
Heroes All (1960)
Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Jezebel (1938)
The Jungle (1967)
The Lead Shoes (1949)
Little Nemo (1911)
Mabel’s Blunder (1914)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Pillow Talk (1959)
Precious Images (1986)
Quasi at the Quackadero (1975)
The Red Book (1994)
The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1930-36)
Scratch and Crow (1995)
Stark Love (1927)
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
A Study in Reds (1932)
Under Western Stars (1938)