Tuesday, December 15, 2020

National Film Registry 2020

For quite some time, TCM had a blank spot on their schedule for tonight which, as in most recent years in the past, has been given over to a night of movies selected for the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. TCM has to embargo any mention of what films they're running until after the announcement of the full 25 selections is made. I figured the Library of Congress was announcing the selections today, since TCM has the programming tonight, but it turns out the list was released yesterday.

There is, as always, a mix of the old and the new, or at least the relatively new, since a movie has to be at least 10 years old to be considered, and a lot of people misunderstanding that the Registry's mission is to select movies that are culturally, historically, or artistically important. Anybody can nominate movies, and unsurprisingly, my suggestions didn't get picked. (Note that the link in the 2014 post for the complete list of films on the Registy is broken; the complete list can now be found here.

I don't know the details of how TCM selects which films from this year's selections are picked for airing on TCM, although I'd guess it's a combination of features that they already have the rights to plus shorts that the Library can help with. This is probably how The Battle of the Century from 1927 kicks things off at 8:00 PM. The other selections are:
Lilies of the Field (1963) at 8:30 PM;
Illusions (1982) at 10:15 PM;
The Joy Luck Club (1993) at 11:00 PM;
Cabin in the Sky (1943) at 1:30 AM; and
The Man With the Golden Arm (1956) at 3:15 AM.

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