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The National Film Registry announced this week its annual selection of 25 films and recordings to add to the permanent collection of the Library of Congress, and among them are old Hollywood classics, recent Oscar winners, and beloved '80s favorites.

Highlights of this year's inductees include comedy classic "Ghostbusters" and Tom Cruise's iconic flick "Top Gun." Awards bait fare "Shawshank Redemption" (which nabbed seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture) and "L.A. Confidential" (which took home the Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay trophies) also made the 2015 cut.

There are always a few quirky additions, too, and this year's crop is no different. A recording that Thomas Edison made of a sneeze in 1894 is a new inductee, as is a short animated film from Disney called "The Story of Menstruation," which was shown in American schools as part of health education classes in the 1940s (and was...

Nooooo. I almost forgot to share the National Film Registries new titles. Each year they add 25 pictures  that are deemed historically, culturally or aesthetically important. Each year I suggest that we should watch all the titles together. Well, the ones we can find at least. Perhaps we'll actually do that for 2016 -- you never know! Getting a spot on the National Film Registry is more symbolic than active. It does not guarantee preservation or restorations but it does suggest that these films should all be preserved and/or restored.

The 2015 additions are:

 

Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894) - watch it now. it's six seconds long... the earliest surviving copyrighted film Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) -watch it now. (7 minutes) from a short Winsor McCay comic strip A Fool There Was (1915) -watch it now. (66 minutes) Theda Bara tempts a married man! It's always the woman's fault, don't you know  Humoresque...

Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 675 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.

Today they’ve unveiled their 2015 list, which includes classics such as Douglas Sirk‘s melodrama Imitation of Life, Hal Ashby‘s Being There, and John Frankenheimer‘s Seconds. Perhaps the most popular picks, The Shawshank Redemption, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and L.A. Confidential were also added. Check out the full list below.

Being There (1979)

Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer’s persona,...

The Library of Congress on Wednesday morning revealed the 25 new titles it's sending this year to the National Film Registry for preservation. New are L.A. Confidential, The Shawshank Redemption, The Mark of Zorro, Top Gun, and that Thomas Edison thing of a sneeze in the 1800s. Just in time to help with its reboot's press campaign, Ghostbusters also made the cut. Still no word on how Dan Aykroyd's vodka is doing, though. Anyway, here are all the 2015 additions, in alphabetical order: Being There (1979) Black and Tan (1929) Dracula (Spanish) (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...

Long before King Kong and whatever that thing was in Cloverfield, there was an animated film called The Pet, released in 1921. Created by cartoonist Winsor McCay, who based the short on characters he had created for a comic strip called Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, The Pet runs almost 11 minutes and follows the story of an innocent-looking dog who grows and grows to the point where he's so big he begins storming New York City, eating passing cars and entire buildings. Not only is this said to be the first movie depicting the destruction of New York at the hands of a monster, but also the first motion picture to ever show a giant monster attacking a city.  Eventually, as they also attempted with King Kong in 1933, a fleet of planes swarm in to try to destroy the rampaging...

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