MICHAEL J. CASEY’S 2023 NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY NOMINATION BALLOT

To keep things tight, I submit 10 titles because it’s a less overwhelming number. And since the only real rule the NFR enforces is that a movie must be at least 10 years old for eligibility, I dedicate one entry to that year. And for my 2013 slot: Inside Llewyn Davis, my favorite film from Joel and Ethan Coen and one of the best movies about how the cycles of artistic progress will always leave some in the back alley. And for no other reason than that’s just how the world works. is as fragile as anything else and in constant danger of disappearance through neglect or conscious erasure. And in an era where licenses change hands with every merger — with several falling into copyright limbo — and shifting cultural mores threaten our collective history, the best way to ensure that the American movies you hold dear remain seen and discussed for future generations is for those movies to be included on a list of titles that reflect “who we are as a people and as a nation.” I give you the National Film Registry (NFR).

We’ll see which of these, if any, make the NFR cut in December. But even if they don’t, the hours spent watching them are far from a waste. Hell, watch them tonight, and you might find them on your own ballot next summer.

Established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, the NFR is one of the many programs run by the Library of Congress. Every year, the National Film Preservation Board reviews thousands of nominations of American movies deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and selects 25 to add to the Registry.

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL

(Dorothy Arzner, 1932)

THE WRONG MAN (Alfred Hitchcock, 1957)

THE NAKED KISS (Samuel Fuller, 1964)

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (Orson Welles, 1965)

PAT GARRETT & BILLY

THE KID (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)

Scan the titles, and you’ll find undisputed classics (Citizen Kane, Casablanca), populist favorites (Star Wars, Iron Man) and lesser-known gems that deserve a large audience (Cooley High, Outrage).

But, as with any list, people tend to gravitate toward what’s not on it rather than what is. That’s where you come in: Anyone can nominate a movie for the Registry, up to 50 titles per year per ballot.

Nominations can be submitted all year round, with the inductees announced in December. Calls for the class of 2023 have closed, but that just gives you extra time to start thinking about your 2024 ballot. And the best place to start is by watching these movies. There’s nothing quite like spending a couple of hours revisiting a work of art that moves you, or discovering something that moves someone else.

Born In Flames

(Lizzie Borden, 1983)

LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF (Thom Andersen, 2003)

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Michel Gondry, 2004)

THE TREE OF LIFE

(Terrence Malick, 2011)

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

(Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)