NEW YORK (NYTimes) - The clock will never strike midnight for Walt Disney's Cinderella (1950).
Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison can perpetually dance all night in My Fair Lady (1964), while the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park (1993) can live without fear of extinction.
These are three of the 25 movies that the American Library of Congress has chosen for induction into its National Film Registry this year, helping to ensure their preservation.
Other films that have been selected include Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Rebecca (1940); Hud (1963); Broadcast News (1987); Eve's Bayou (1997), the feature-directing debut of Kasi Lemmons; Lee Ang's Academy Award-winning film version of Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Stanley Kubrick's terrifying take on The Shining (1980).
The roster also includes the John Sturges thriller, Bad Day At Black Rock (1955); the Blake Edwards melodrama, Days Of Wine And Roses (1962), starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick; Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai (1947), with Rita Hayworth; and documentary Monterey Pop (1968).
The Library of Congress said these 25 films had been chosen "because of their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation's film heritage".
Films chosen for the registry must be at least 10 years old.
The library said more than 6,300 titles were nominated by the public and that final selections were made by the librarian of Congress after consulting members of the National Film Preservation Board and other specialists.
Brokeback Mountain, which is now the most recent film of the 750 on the registry, focuses on the tragic tale of two cowboys who fall in love and stars Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger.
Lee Ang, the film's director, said it was not intended to make a statement - he simply wanted to tell a love story.
"To my great surprise, the film ended up striking a deep chord with audiences; the movie became a part of the culture, a reflection of the darkness and light - of violent prejudice and enduring love - in the rocky landscape of the American heart," Lee added in a statement.
