Awards Watch: National Film Registry 2009

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year since 1989 the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to be preserved for all time. And this year, they (finally) got a little gayer with the inductions of Dog Day Afternoon (with Al Pacino as a bisexual bank robber) and (to a lesser extent) Pillow Talk (starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day).

Other cinematic classics to make the cut for 2009 include the sci-fi favorite The Incredible Shrinking Man, the melodramas Jezebel and Mrs. Miniver (featuring the Oscar winning performances of, respectively, Bette Davis and Greer Garson), The Mark of Zorro (Tyrone Power), The Muppet Movie (!), Serigio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, The Story of G.I. Joe (Robert Mitchum) and Under Western Stars (Roy Rogers).

And it looks like even the Library of Congress can't escape the Michael Jackson fever that has swept the nation since his death earlier this year with the inclusion of Thriller, his groundbreaking music video (a first for the NFR). The remainder of the inductees are mostly obscure shorts and documentaries; click here for a full description (pdf) of all NFR's class of '09, or see the comments section below for a quick look.