Library of Congress Will Preserve The Big Lebowski as a Historical Piece of American Culture

The National Film Preservation Board added the Coen brothers’ perpetually quotable cult classic The Big Lebowski to the National Film Registry this year, preserving it in the Library of Congress for all time and cementing The Dude as one of film’s most beloved characters. Among the 24 other films added were Saving Private Ryan, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off . Excellent selections, if I do say so myself.

Each year, the NFPB selects 25 films, all at least 10 years old, that it deems “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” . Toy Story , Raging Bull , Fargo , Goodfellas , and Do the Right Thing all were picked in their first year of eligibility.

This year, the 2004 documentary 13 Lakes became the newest film to be added to the registry. The oldest film is Newark Athlete , a 10-second film fragment from 1891. Watch it below to see how far the movies have come in the last century.

Here is the full list of films that achieved immortality this year:

Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)
Shoes (1916)
Unmasked (1917)
The Dragon Painter (1919)
The Power and the Glory (1933)
State Fair (1933)
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
Down Argentine Way (1940)
The Gang’s All Here (1943)
V-E +1 (1945)
The Way of Peace (1947)
House of Wax (1953)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Felicia (1965)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Little Big Man (1970)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Please Don’t Bury Me Alive! (1976)
Moon Breath Beat (1980)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Luxo Jr. (1986)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000)
13 Lakes (2004)