NFR 2024: The Class of Khan

‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the blog

Not a crea—

Ah, screw it I’m not doing this whole thing in rhyme. Hey, we got more NFR films!

Here is your National Film Registry class of 2024, bringing the total number of NFR films to a nice and even 900. As always, movies with * are ones I submitted this year, movies with + are ones I have submitted in previous years. In chronological order, they are:

Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895)
KoKo’s Earth Control (1928)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)*
Invaders from Mars (1953)
The Miracle Worker (1962)*
Chelsea Girls (1966)
Ganja and Hess (1973)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
Zora Lathan Student Films (1975-1976)
Up in Smoke (1978)+
Will (1981)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)+
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)+
Dirty Dancing (1987)+
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)
Powwow Highway (1989)
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
American Me (1992)
Mi Familia (1995)
Compensation (1999)
Spy Kids (2001)
No Country for Old Men (2007)+
The Social Network (2010)+

Other notes

Two of my submissions made the cut this year: “The Pride of the Yankees” and “The Miracle Worker”. The latter is particularly satisfying because I have been submitting it for years, and it’s one of my mom’s favorite movies. I believe this qualifies as being a good son.
Even by NFR standards the 2024 class is a very broad spectrum of movies. These 25 films span 115 years (across three centuries!) and cover practically every genre or type of film possible, created by filmmakers from all walks of life. In addition to celebrating this diversity of films and creatives, the NFR write-ups also go out of their way to highlight the lasting impact of these movies, citing recent film and TV inspired by these inductees.
While I try not to focus on the other 48 movies on my ballot that didn’t make the cut, I take comfort in the fact that this year there were 6,744 movies publicly nominated for NFR consideration. Put another way, it would take 270 years for the NFR to induct every movie nominated in 2024, so the fact that two of my picks made it is pretty good.
The NFR erroneously states that “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Up in Smoke” are the first NFR titles for, respectively, Eddie Murphy and Cheech Marin. While this is technically the first on-screen appearance for both, they have lent their voices to previous NFR entries; Murphy can be heard as Donkey in “Shrek”, Marin as one of the hyenas in “The Lion King”.
Speaking of Cheech Marin, thanks to “Up in Smoke” and “Spy Kids”, Marin is one of this year’s NFR double-dippers. Also double-dipping this year are producer Lou Adler and actor/director Edward James Olmos, who now has eight movies on the NFR! Watch your back, Ward Bond.
Alright, another Warhol movie! I feel like it will be harder to accidentally watch a fan-made recreation of “Chelsea Girls”. Although given my brief internet search this morning it might be hard to watch the real “Chelsea Girls”.
This roster also includes a few “What I really want to do is direct” movies with films helmed by art director William Cameron Menzies, the aforementioned Edward James Olmos, and the legendary Sidney Poitier. I have heard of but never seen “Uptown Saturday Night”, so let me refresh my memory and look up who else is in the cast – Oh my god!
It is increasingly bizarre to see more and more movies from my lifetime making it onto the NFR. On one hand there’s “No Country for Old Men”, one of my favorite theater-going experiences back in 2007, and on the other hand: “Spy Kids”. No knock against the movie or Robert Rodriguez, but I have lived long enough that “Spy Kids” has been deemed a historically significant American film. I’m gonna go lie down for a bit.

Those are my thoughts for now, I will begin tackling the class of 2024 in January (Up first: “The Social Network”). My thanks to everyone who has stopped by and visited “The Horse’s Head” this year. 2024 was the year with the highest view count for this blog, and it was the year we hit the important milestones of 700 movies and 100,000 all-time views! And special thanks to the small NFR community I have been adopted into this year; you know who you are. As we gear up for whatever the hell 2025 is going to be, I leave you with the most iconic moment from this year’s NFR entries: