Philly films make it to the National Film Registry for 2024
Sam Wood, Bill Gunn, and Arthur Penn are among the filmmakers whose films made it to the Registry.
A new crop of classic, award-winning films have been named to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, including some with Philly connections.
Joining Oscar-winning films like No Country for Old Men and David Fincher’s The Social Network is The Miracle Worker, the 1962 film directed by Philly-born filmmaker Arthur Penn, whose brother was the photographer Irving Penn.
The Olney High School alum and Army vet went on to direct the neo-noir crime classic Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Little Big Man (1970), starring Dustin Hoffman. He died in 2010 at age 88.
The Library also added the 1973 horror-drama Ganja and Hess by actor, screenwriter, novelist, and Philly native Bill Gunn, who died in 1989, a day before his play The Forbidden City was schedule to open at New York City’s Public Theater.
Also making its way to the Registry is Philly-born filmmaker Sam Wood’s 1942 film, The Pride of the Yankees, based on the life of baseball player Lou Gehrig. The Bill Cosby-starring film Uptown Saturday Night was also inducted. Then there’s Will (1981) by cinematographer and director Jessie Maple, which is the first indie feature helmed by a Black woman. Maple is an alum of Philadelphia’s Franklin School of Science and Arts, where she studied medical technology. She was the head of a bacteriology and serology laboratory in the city, before venturing into filmmaking.
Other entries int he Registry this year include Dirty Dancing, Beverly Hills Cop, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the Robert Rodriguez children’s adventure Spy Kids, and Andy Warhol’s The Chelsea Girls, among others.
Since 1989, the National Film Registry has added 25 motion pictures for their “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage” every year, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in an announcement on Tuesday.
The oldest film on this year’s list is the 1895 short Annabelle Serpentine Dance, which was produced by Thomas Edison’s manufacturing imprint, the Edison Co. The most recent is the Jesse Eisenberg-starring bio-drama The Social Network (2010).
The registry now includes 900 total titles.
Turner Classic Movies will host a TV special to screen select films from the new list starting at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. Hayden will join TCM host and film historian Jacqueline Stewart to discuss this year’s selections.
For the full list of additions, visit newsroom.loc.gov.