A slate of 25 films have been chosen for their "cultural, historic, or aesthetic" significance as part of the National Film Registry's (NFR) annual selection to preserve America's cinematic heritage -- and one prominent Massachusetts movie has made the cut.
"The Social Network," the story of the creation, growth and challenges of the social media platform Facebook which has its roots at Harvard University in Cambridge and where much of the movie was shot, is the most recent of the 25 new entries into the NFR -- a subsidiary of the Library of Congress, the world's largest library.
Jesse Eisenberg stars in the film as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, alongside Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, and Max Minghella.
The drama is based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by author Ben Mezrich and was released in theaters back in 2010. In order to qualify for NFR preservation, a film must be at least 10 years old.
The oldest "new" entry to the NFR is a silent short film called "Annabelle Serpentine Dance" dating back 130 years ago to 1895. This 45-second-long moving picture from the "dawn of cinema" depicts its title actress, Annabelle Moore, performing a popular dance in motion, according to the Library of Congress.
More recent notable entries from the 2000s are crime thriller "No Country for Old Men" (2007) and children's action comedy "Spy Kids" (2001).
Selections also include a host of big name 80s titles like 1987's "Dirty Dancing" starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, 1984's "Beverly Hills Cop" starring Eddie Murphy, and 1982's "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan," starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
The original 1974 film "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" of the eponymous horror movie franchise, the 1989 documentary "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt" about the AIDS epidemic, and independent cult classic "My Own Private Idaho" starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, were also all named for this year.
The full list of films selected for the 2024 National Film Registry are:
Established in 1988, the National Film Preservation Board advises the Librarian of Congress, who names the 25 new films for each year, on preservation policies and annual selections for the NFR.
Selections are also considered from titles nominated by the public, with nominations for each year accepted until mid-August. Information for how to submit a film for consideration is available on the Library of Congress website.
In this most recent cycle, 6,744 films were nominated by members of the public for preservation through the Library of Congress.
There are now over 900 film titles within the NFR according to the Library of Congress.