Mental Floss

Ghostbusters and Top Gun Among the National Film Registry's 2015 Inductees

ByAndrew LaSane|
MovieClips on YouTube
MovieClips on YouTube | MovieClips on YouTube

Each year, in part aided by public vote, the Library of Congress's National Film Registry chooses 25 new films to add to its preservation efforts in order to "ensure the survival, conservation, and increased public availability of America's film heritage." The only requirements are that a film be at least a decade old and qualify as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." The LOC and the National Film Preservation Board have announced the group of 25 films being added this year, and the lineup is noticeably diverse.

The latest class of films brings the National Film Registry's total library to 675 films. Ghostbusters (1984) and Top Gun 1986), each the highest grossing film in its respective release year, earned slots on the 2015 list, as did the popular 1994 drama, The Shawshank Redemption. Other notable additions include L.A. Confidential (1997), Imitation of Life (1959), the Duke Ellington-headed jazz film Black and Tan (1929), and The Story of Menstruation (1946), which according to the National Film Registry's description page is a film produced by Disney that was considered "more progressive" and scientifically accurate than most educational videos of the time. 

Here is the full list of new inductees, as published on the Library of Congress's website:

  • 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)