Lights, Camera, Action

All the President's Men, The Exorcist and Malcolm X are among 25 films selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, it was announced yesterday (28th December).

Each year, classics, shorts and documentaries deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant to American culture are added to the US film archive, now numbering 550 and spanning the period 1891-1996.   The films selected in 2010 include:

. Robert Altman's 1971 Western McCabe and Mrs. Miller starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie
. Blake Edwards' The Pink Panther from 1964, the first from the franchise starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau
. John Huston's Let There Be Light, a 1946 war documentary banned by the US War Department for 35 years
. Spike Lee's 1992 biopic Malcolm X about the African American civil rights leader played by Denzel Washington
. Airplane! (1980), the wacky comedy starring the late Leslie Nielsen
. The Exorcist (1973), the horror blockbuster
. Saturday Night Fever (1977) starring John Travolta and depicting the disco era
. Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976), starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, about the Watergate political scandal

George Lucas's The Empire Strikes Back, his 1980 Star Wars sequel, and his 15-minute student film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, made in 1967 at the University of Southern California, also made the list.

"The National Film Registry is a reminder to the nation that the preservation of our cinematic creativity must be a priority because about half of the films produced before 1950 and as much as 90% of those made before 1920 have been lost to future generations," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington in a press release.

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, hundreds of titles are nominated by the public and considered by the National Film Preservation Board and staff. The public is encouraged to make nominations for 2011's registry at the Film Board's website at http://www.loc.gov/film.