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From ‘The Karate Kid’ to ‘Clueless,’ These Are the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry. See the Full List Here

“The Incredibles,” “Inception” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” join more than 900 titles preserved by the Library of Congress

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

January 30, 2026

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Edna Mode, the brutally honest and beloved fashion designer from The Incredibles, once famously declared, “I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now.”

Mode can now rest assured that her own resonance is timeless, not only to audiences but also to the Library of Congress.

The Washington, D.C. institution, whose mission is to ensure the preservation of art and knowledge, included the 2004 animated superhero flick in the newest group of 25 movies added to the National Film Registry. The annual list aims to preserve a diverse collection of movies of “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance” for the enjoyment of future audiences.

“When we preserve films, we preserve American culture for generations to come. … Films are instrumental in capturing important parts of our nation’s story,” says Robert R. Newlen, the acting librarian of Congress, in a statement. “We are proud to continue this important work, adding a broad range of 25 films to the National Film Registry as a collective effort in the film community to protect our cinematic heritage.”

The diverse offerings in the 2025 class span 118 years, from The Tramp and the Dog (1896)—the first commercial film ever made in Chicago—to The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). While working on The Grand Budapest Hotel, director Wes Anderson routinely consulted the Library of Congress’ archival images of Eastern Europe to create “visually striking stories and scenery,” according to the statement.

“When we were first starting to figure out how to tell this story, the views and images that we were looking for, the architecture and the landscapes that we wanted, they don’t exist anymore,” says Anderson in the statement. “We went through the entire Photochrom collection, which is a lot of images. We made our own versions of things, but much of what is in our film comes directly from that collection from the Library of Congress.”

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The Karate Kid (1984), Philadelphia (1993), The Truman Show (1998) and Inception (2010) are among the highest-grossing films added to the registry this year. The list now includes 925 titles.

The Library of Congress’ preservation of roughly 25 films annually began after the passage of the 1988 National Film Preservation Act. The first films honored in 1989 included Hollywood classics such as The Wizard of Oz (1939), Citizen Kane (1941), Casablanca (1942) and Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (1977).

Narrowing down a new class of films is a lengthy process. Experts from the library and the National Film Preservation Board suggested a range of picks for potential inclusion. Newlen, who made the final selections, also considered 7,559 films nominated by the public—around 700 more suggestions than were submitted last year, the New York Times’ Shivani Gonzalez reports.

The most-nominated film this year was The Thing (1982), a cult favorite science fiction and horror film that tells the story of researchers discovering extraterrestrial life in Antarctica. The Thing made it onto the final list of honorees.

Six silent films and four documentaries also joined the registry, including Brooklyn Bridge (1981), which tells the story of the New York City landmark’s construction and history. It was the directorial debut of Ken Burns, who has gone on to produce major documentary series about the American Revolution, the Holocaust and many other topics.

“This 60-minute film holds in it all the impulses that guide my own work internally,” Burns tells the Washington Post’s Sonia Rao. “It’s not a perfectionism, but just getting the facts right … and trying to make something whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. To try to do something that could last and be beautiful.”

Denzel Washington and Bing Crosby were doubly honored in this year’s class of films. Each starred in two features added to the registry: Washington in Glory (1989) and Philadelphia (1993) and Crosby in White Christmas (1954) and High Society (1956), which also starred Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly in her final performance before becoming the princess of Monaco.

These are the films selected for the 2025 National Film Registry, in chronological order:

The Tramp and the Dog (1896)

The Oath of the Sword (1914)

The Maid of McMillan (1916)

The Lady (1925)

Sparrows (1926)

Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926)

White Christmas (1954)

High Society (1956)

Brooklyn Bridge (1981)

Say Amen, Somebody (1982)

The Thing (1982)

The Big Chill (1983)

The Karate Kid (1984)

Glory (1989)

Philadelphia (1993)

Before Sunrise (1995)

Clueless (1995)

The Truman Show (1998)

Frida (2002)

The Hours (2002)

The Incredibles (2004)

The Wrecking Crew (2008)

Inception (2010)

The Loving Story (2011)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

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Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.