The 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for the 2009 National Film Registry were announced today and include the usual mix of classic Hollywood, independent , documentary, amateur and student films. (The Library’s press release announcing the list can be found here.) Also as usual, I found the selection a mixed bag, but among the selections I have no quibble with are Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975) (a particular favorite of mine) and Winsor McCay’s first film, Little Nemo (1911) (a pick that was way overdue; pictured above is one of the film’s most magical moments).

Animated films have almost always made the cut since the Registry was first established in 1989, but they do seem more prevalent this year and include: Sidney Peterson’s The Lead Shoes (1949), (a live-action/animation combo that is more of a trick film), Sally Cruikshank’s Quasi at the Quackadero (1975), Janie Geiser’s The Red Book (1994), and Helen Hill’s Scratch and Crow (1995) (a student film made at CalArts; the other student effort this year is Martin Brest’s Hot Dogs for Gauguin [NYU, 1972], “with a cast including Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman in her film debut.”)