Thelma & Louise and The Breakfast Club enter National Film Registry

Movies including Thelma & Louise, The Breakfast Club and The Lion King have been selected for preservation by officials at America’s National Film Registry.
Every year, 25 films are selected by executives of the U.S. Library of Congress to be added to the registry for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” important and at least 10 years old.
The inclusion of Thelma & Louise, the 1991 road movie starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, marks the third film made by Ridley Scott to make the list after Blade Runner and Alien, which were inducted in 1993 and 2002 respectively.
“I am very honoured and proud to be acknowledged by the Library of Congress,” Scott said in a statement. “Blade Runner will now have two great ladies to keep him company.”
Thelma & Louise is joined by John Hughes’ 1985 movie The Breakfast Club, Disney’s 1994 animation The Lion King, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, Robert Zemeckis’ 1988 fantasy caper Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride.
Other notable additions include Funny Girl, which starred Barbra Streisand, East of Eden, featuring the late James Dean, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Point Blank, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Lost Horizon, Ball of Fire and Blackboard Jungle.
The 1981 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, about the Los Angeles punk scene, was also selected and writer/director Penelope Spheeris told The Hollywood Reporter it was “deeply gratifying.”
The films selected span the period between 1903 to 1998, with the most recent addition being Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. The 2016 list brings the number of movies in the registry to 700.
“Motion pictures document our history and culture and serve as a mirror of our collective experiences,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden explained in a statement.“The National Film Registry embraces the richness and diversity of film as an art form and celebrates the people who create the magic of cinema.”