This week, the Library of Congress revealed 25 new additions to the National Film Registry.  If you’ve never heard of this before, read on.

The National Film Preservation Act of 1992 created the National Film Registry to preserve films in perpetuity if they are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.  Each year, 25 new films are added to the Registry.  The 25 additions for 2007 now bring the Registry’s total holdings up to 475 films.

Interestingly, as Librarian of Congress James Billington revealed, “up to half the films produced in this country before 1950 – and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920- are lost forever. The National Film Registry seeks not only to honor these films, but to ensure that they are preserved for future generations.”

Here is a full list of the 25 films choosen by the Library of Congress to be included in the National Film Registry in 2007:

Back to the Future (1985)
Bullitt (1968)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Glimpse of the Garden (1957)
Grand Hotel (1932)
The House I Live In (1945)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Mighty Like a Moose (1926)
The Naked City (1948)
Now, Voyager (1942)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Our Day (1938)
Peege (1972)
The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928)
The Strong Man (1926)
Three Little Pigs (1933)
Tol’able David (1921)
Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son (1969-71)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Women (1939)
Wuthering Heights (1939)