National Film Registry picks Thelma & Louise and The Breakfast Club for preservation

Andrew Pulver
14 December 2016

Thelma & Louise, The Breakfast Club and The Birds are among the 25 films selected for preservation by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, it has been announced.

Each year the National Film Preservation Board advises congress on which titles should be added to the registry, along with nominations from the public. To qualify, a film must be at least a decade old and be “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.

The 1991 thriller Thelma & Louise, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, was considered a landmark in Hollywood’s portrayal of women characters. The Breakfast Club, written and directed by the late John Hughes and released in 1985, is arguably the best-known of the 1980s teen-movie cycle that included Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (both already in the register) and Pretty in Pink.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds joins a number of the director’s other films on the list, including North by Northwest, Vertigo and Psycho.

Full list of films selected for the National Film Registry

1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916, dir: Stuart Paton)
2. The Atomic Cafe (1982, dirs: Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty)
3. Ball of Fire (1941, dir: Howard Hawks)
4. The Beau Brummels (1928)
5. The Birds (1963, dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Blackboard Jungle (1955, dir: Richard Brooks)
7. The Breakfast Club (1985, dir: John Hughes)
8. The Decline of Western Civilization (1981, dir: Penelope Spheeris)
9. East of Eden (1955, Elia Kazan)
10. Funny Girl (1968, dir: William Wyler)
11. Life of an American Fireman (1903, dir: Edwin S Porter)
12. The Lion King (1994, dirs: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff)
13. Lost Horizon (1937, dir: Frank Capra)
14. Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912, dir: DW Griffith)
15. Paris Is Burning (1990, dir: Jennie Livingston)
16. Point Blank (1967, dir: John Boorman)
17. The Princess Bride (1987, dir: Rob Reiner)
18. Putney Swope (1969, dir: Robert Downey Sr)
19. Rushmore (1998, dir: Wes Anderson)
20. Solomon Sir Jones films (1924-28)
21. Steamboat Bill Jr (1928, dir: Charles Reisner)
22. Suzanne, Suzanne (1982, dir: Camille Billops, James Hatch)
23. Thelma & Louise (1991, dir: Ridley Scott)
24. A Walk in the Sun (1945, dir: Lewis Milestone)
25. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, dir: Robert Zemeckis)

not mine.credit and source: THE GUARDIAN