National Film Registry 2025: the 25 films the Library of Congress named in January 2026

On January 29, 2026, the Library of Congress announced the 25 titles of the 2025 National Film Registry. The selections stretch from The Tramp and the Dog, made in 1896, to Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel from 2014, and the Library said they lift the registry’s total to 925 films. Below are the 25 titles, how the Library picks them, what the Library has posted about the list since, and where the registry stood on November 11, 2026.

How a film gets on the registry

The registry rests on the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. Every year the Librarian of Congress chooses 25 films, advised by the National Film Preservation Board, that are judged “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to America’s film heritage, in the wording the Library uses. Two conditions apply to every title: it has to be at least 10 years old, and it has to still exist, which the Library calls being “extant.”

Anyone can suggest films. The Library said its 2025 choices drew on recommendations from the board as well as nominations from the public, and that more than 7,500 films were put forward that year. A place on the registry does not mean the Library itself holds the film. According to the January announcement, many of the 2025 titles are among the more than 2 million moving images in the Library’s collections, while others are kept by their copyright holders or by other film archives.

The 25 films

The Library published the list in chronological order, and the table follows it. The notes in the third column come from the Library’s announcement; a dash means the announcement gives only the title and year.

Six silent films and a student short

Six of the selections were made between 1896 and 1926, in the silent era. The Library singles out one of them as a first: The Maid of McMillan, from 1916, is the earliest known student film, and it was made at Washington University in St. Louis. By our count, the other 19 titles break down by decade like this: two from the 1950s, six from the 1980s, four each from the 1990s and the 2000s, and three made since 2010.

The newest title has a tie to the Library itself. According to the announcement, the makers of The Grand Budapest Hotel did detailed period research at the Library of Congress when they designed the film’s scenery.

Documentaries, musicals and Hollywood titles

Four documentaries are on the list. Brooklyn Bridge (1981) was Ken Burns’ first film, the Library notes. The other three are George Nierenberg’s Say Amen, Somebody (1982), Denny Tedesco’s The Wrecking Crew (2008) and Nancy Buirski’s The Loving Story (2011).

The Library’s classic Hollywood selections include two musicals. It credits White Christmas (1954) with having “enshrined” its title song, which it describes as chart-topping, while High Society (1956) brings together Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Grace Kelly. The announcement also names five Hollywood titles from 1984 to 2010: The Karate Kid, Glory, Philadelphia, Clueless and Inception. The rest of the list is made up of The Thing (1982), The Big Chill (1983), Before Sunrise (1995), The Truman Show (1998), Frida and The Hours (both 2002) and The Incredibles (2004).

Screenings and nominations after the announcement

In its announcement, the Library said Turner Classic Movies would show films from the new list on Thursday, March 19, 2026, from 8 p.m. ET, with Jacqueline Stewart, whom the announcement describes as a TCM host and the chair of the National Film Preservation Board.

Clueless was also on the Library’s own summer program. The Summer Movies on the Lawn schedule, posted on July 8, 2026, listed it for Thursday, July 9, on the grounds of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, with a note that it joined the registry in 2025. The Library said the screenings were free and needed no tickets.

On July 30, 2026, the Library reminded readers of the deadline for the next list. It put the registry at 925 films to date and asked for nominations for the 2026 registry by August 15, 2026, with up to 50 titles per person through an online form. Nominations that arrived after that date, it said, would count toward the 2027 registry.

Where the registry stands now

On November 11, 2026, the National Film Registry section of the Library’s Now See Hear! blog carried no announcement of 2026 selections. Its newest entry was the November program for the Packard Campus Theater, posted on October 29. The most recent count among the Library posts this guide draws on is the 925 films it gave on July 30.

Registry titles also turn up in the Library’s monthly programs at the Packard Campus Theater, which mark them with an asterisk; our guide to the November program covers the current month.