National Film Registry

Inductee gallery

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  Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894) is one of the earliest U.S. films that Thomas Edison produced.
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  The Dickson Experimental Sound Film is the first known film with live-recorded sound, either late 1894 or early 1895.
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  The 47-second long The Kiss (1896) was one of the first films shown commercially to the public.
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  The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (1897) was both the first feature-length picture (running at almost 100 minutes) as well as film's first bona-fide financial success (grossing between $100,000–$750,000), sparking the earliest large-scale discussion about the medium.
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  Ringling Brothers Parade Film (1902) provided a rare look at early 20th Century African-American communities.
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  The Great Train Robbery (1903) used a variety of editing techniques that were becoming popular at the time of its release.
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  Although not the first animated film, Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) became the first popular cartoon thanks to its creator Winsor McCay.
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  The Birth of a Nation (1915) developed innovative camera techniques and special effects and became Hollywood's first successful feature film, being cited as the first "super-production" despite enduring controversy on its positive portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan.
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  The influential Intolerance (1916) was made by D. W. Griffith partly in response to controversy over the racism seen in The Birth of a Nation.
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  The 1916 feature Shoes was directed by Lois Weber, one of the few women working in Hollywood during the silent era.
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  American wit Will Rogers in the comedy film Jubilo (1919).
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  Charlie Chaplin's 1921 film The Kid not only became the first successful comedy feature film, but also demonstrated the compatibility between dramatic and comedic elements, cementing Chaplin's reputation.
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  A Movie Trip Through Filmland, the 1921 educational film about the production of motion picture film stock and the impact of movies on global audiences.
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  Nanook of the North (1922) revolutionized the documentary film with its large scale production, though it continues to receive controversy for staging several of the events it depicts.
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  The iconic scene featuring Harold Lloyd hanging from the clock in Safety Last! (1923) has been referenced by numerous media, with a number of films including similar events in their plots.
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  Greed, the 1924 film by Erich von Stroheim, is known for its reputation as the "holy grail" of lost films (the original 42-reel uncut version).
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  The Phantom of the Opera (1925) featured extensive makeup for its main character in one of Lon Chaney's greatest roles.
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  Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927), the first feature film to include scenes of fully synchronized sound that is also known for its controversial use of blackface.
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  Jules Raucourt stars as the protagonist of the 1927 experimental classic The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra.
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  F.W. Munrau's 1927 drama Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won the only Oscar handed to a "Unique and Artistic Picture", a prize that was intended to honor prestige art films separately from "commercial fare".
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  Clara Bow in the first Academy Award for Best Picture winner Wings (1927).
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  Multiple Edgar Allan Poe adaptations included The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Roger Corman's 1960 remake House of Usher featuring Vincent Price and the animated 1953 version of The Tell-Tale Heart.
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  The Big Trail (1930) was one of the first films to experiment with a widescreen format.
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  The 1931 film version of Dracula became highly influential over future depictions of the title character. Its simultaneously-filmed Spanish-language version is unique among foreign-language versions for being preserved in the registry as well.
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  Little Caesar (1931) sparked a vogue for gangster films during the early 1930s and established Edward G. Robinson as the quintessential "movie mobster".
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  Barbara Stanwyck in the notorious 1933 Pre-Code classic Baby Face.
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  The 1932 horror film classic Freaks had soon became a cult midnight movie after its initial release.
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  The groundbreaking special effects by Willis O'Brien and endless spoofs of the famous Empire State Building climax have made King Kong (1933) one of the most influential films of all time.
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  King Vidor's 1934 social realist drama Our Daily Bread
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  Becky Sharp (1935) was one of the first fully developed three-strip Technicolor films.
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  Lasting 16 minutes, the Fleischer Brothers classic 1936 Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was the first U.S.-produced animated film with a running time over the standard 7–8 minutes, predating Disney's Snow White by a year.
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  The famous "Heigh-Ho" sequence from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the first American animated feature film, created by Walt Disney, and showing the seven dwarfs (Doc, Happy, Grumpy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey, Sleepy).
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  Documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz was known for his works involving President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal including The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1938).
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  Under Western Stars (1938), featuring legendary singing cowboy Roy Rogers
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  Despite not being the first film in color, The Wizard of Oz (1939) startled audiences when Judy Garland seamlessly transitioned from sepia-tone to color.
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  Adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind (1939) is the highest-grossing film in box-office history but still endures controversy to this day over its' romanticized take of the Confederacy.
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  Fantasia (1940) includes Mickey Mouse in the ever-popular segment The Sorcerer's Apprentice by French composer Paul Dukas.
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  Despite initial box-office struggles, Disney's 2nd animated film Pinocchio (1940) has long been acclaimed for its technical and artistic merits.
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  Before becoming President, actor Ronald Reagan was known for playing Notre Dame football legend Knute Rockne in the 1940 biopic Knute Rockne, All-Amrrican.
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  The Great Dictator (1940), a direct spoof of dictator Adolf Hitler, was Charlie Chaplin's first sound film after his era of silent films.
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  Spencer Williams's 1941 religious drama The Blood of Jesus became the first race film added to the Registry.
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  Citizen Kane (1941) is considered by many critics and scholars (including the American Film Institute) to be the greatest film ever made.
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  Humphrey Bogart in the 1941 remake of The Maltese Falcon, considered to be one of the earliest examples of film noir.
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  The films of Preston Sturges, including Sullivan's Travels (1941), were each known for their witty dialogue.
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  Casablanca (1942) has six lines of dialogue on AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes, more than any other film.
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  The all-black musical Cabin in the Sky (1943), starring vocal jazz legends Lena Horne and Ethal Waters, was also the directorial debut of Vincette Minnelli.
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  Of all the films directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, the psychological thriller Shadow of a Doubt (1943) was his personal favorite.
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  Maya Deren's magnum opus, Meshes of the Afternoon, the 1943 experimental classic that influenced filmmakers like David Lynch.
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  Why We Fight was a series of propaganda films directed by Frank Capra explaining to soldiers why the United States was involved in World War II.
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  Ann Savage and Tom Neal in the legendary 1945 B-movie Detour that remains a cult favorite among critics.
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  The Best Years of Our Lives, the 1946 film that looked at American life after the end of WWII, starred real life disabled veteran Harold Russel who won both the Best Supporting Actor and Honorary Academy Awards.
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  It's a Wonderful Life disappointed both critics and audiences while in theaters in 1946, but frequent television showings have transformed it into one of the most beloved and widely referenced films of all time.
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  Let There Be Light was a controversial 1946 documentary about post-traumatic stress disorder and the effect it has on returning soldiers that was blocked from public distribution for 35 years.
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  Gentleman's Agreement (1947) was one of the few Hollywood productions to tackle anti-semitism after WWII.
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  Force of Evil (1948), starring blacklisted actor John Garfield and directed by blacklisted screenwriter Abraham Polonsky, is an example of what video essayist Thom Andersen called film gris or film noir critical of American capitalism.
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  Virgil Thomson's score for the docufiction film Louisiana Story (1948) won him the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Music the following year.
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  Billy Wilder's take on sensational journalism Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival, 1951) was made after the success of the Oscar-winning Sunset Boulevard (also on the registry) a year prior.
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  The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is one of the great 1950s science fiction films made during the Cold War era.
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  Duck and Cover, the 1951 training film about how to survive an atomic blast, was also featured in another Registry title: the 1982 satirical Cold War collage documentary The Atomic Cafe.
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  Gary Cooper in the controversial High Noon (1952), which was said to be an allegory on McCarthyism.
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  The legendary Gene Kelly musical Singin' in the Rain (1952) features some of the most beloved musical numbers ever performed on screen.
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  Ida Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker (1953) is notable for being the first American film noir directed by a female.
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  The influential cult 1953 sci-fi indie Invaders from Mars is also known for its twist ending.
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  Roman Holiday (1953) made Audrey Hepburn an overnight star and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
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  Dorothy Drandridge became the first African American to be nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Otto Preminger's musical adaptation of Georges Bizet's beloved opera Carmen Jones (1954).
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  Salt of the Earth (1954), Herbert J. Biberman's docudrama about a miner's strike, is the only American film ever to be blacklisted.
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  Judy Garland in perhaps her most acclaimed performance, Esther Blodgett in the 1954 remake of A Star Is Born.
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  Combining elements of the western and film noir genres, the social thriller Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) was the first film to openly acknowledge the racism against Japanese Americans after World War II.
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  Blackboard Jungle (1955) was one of the first mainstream films to feature what would be later known as rock and roll (the song used, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets, is also on the National Recording Registry.)
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  The Frank Sinatra vehicle The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) featured memorable title sequences by then-unknown graphic designer Saul Bass.
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  Rebel Without a Cause (1955) was released in theaters less than one month after the main actor, James Dean, died in a car accident.
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  Drive-in theater ad for the 1956 sci-fi epic Forbidden Planet (1956), which was also notable for featuring an all-electronic score composed by Bebe and Louis Barron.
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  Often cited as one of the greatest westerns of all time, The Searchers (1956) was an influence on directors including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and David Lean.
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  For Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 remake of his own silent classic The Ten Commandments used various visual effects to create the illusion of Moses (Charlton Heston) parting the Red Sea.
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  The Eliza Kazan drama A Face in the Crowd (1957) featured a powerful breakthrough performance of TV star Andy Griffith.
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  Elvis Presley (at the peak of his rock n' roll popularity) refused to watch the completed 1957 Jailhouse Rock after Judy Tyler was killed in a car accident a few weeks before the film's release.
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  Tommy Kirk and Fess Parker in the 1957 Disney live-action classic Old Yeller, notable for one of the saddest deaths in cinema history.
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  Former Looney Tunes animator turned live-action director Frank Tashlin's media satire Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) featured sex symbol Jayne Mansfield.
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  Bruce Conner's legendary 1958 collage film A Movie was his first attempt at making what he called an "anti-movie".
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  Orson Welles in Touch of Evil (1958), said to be one of the last great film noirs of all time.
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  Vertigo (1958) was called the greatest film of all time according to the 2012 Sight & Sound poll.
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  Douglas Sirk's 1950s melodramas tackled American suburban life, including his 1959 remake of Imitation of Life (the 1934 original is also in the registry).
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  The 1959 film adaptation of the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess has never been available on any home media and only rarely been screened.
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  Some Like It Hot (1959) was voted the funniest American film on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs.
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  Psycho (1960) features one of the most imitated and spoofed scenes in all of cinema (the infamous shower scene) and made Anthony Perkins a household name.
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  Hollywood leading man Paul Newman and Golden Age TV legend Jackie Gleason in their Oscar-nominated roles as pool hustlers Fast Eddie and Minnesota Fats in the 1961 sports drama The Hustler.
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  One-Jacked Eyes (1961) was the only directorial effort for Oscar-winning method actor Marlon Brando.
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  The 1962 film adaptation of Flower Drum Song became the first major Hollywood feature film to have a majority Asian American cast in a contemporary Asian-American story.
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  Oscar-winning actresses Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in Robert Aldrich's pyschological horror thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
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  Stanley Donen's 1963 caper Charade has been called the best "Alfred Hitchcock film never made".
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  Cinerama introduced a widescreen process that would later use 70mm film on classics such as the 1963 all-star epics How the West Was Won (poster shown) and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
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  Ex-crime reporter Samuel Fuller was known for his low-budget thrillers including 1963's Shock Corridor.
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  Slim Pickens in the 1964 Cold War dark satire Dr. Strangelove, one of the many acclaimed masterworks from Stanley Kubrick.
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  Julie Andrews in her Oscar-winning role of Mary Poppins (1964), often considered Walt Disney’s crowning achievement in live-action films.
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  One of the most important films dealing with the African American experience, the 1964 drama Nothing but a Man featuring jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln and TV actor Ivan Dixon (later known for his role on Hogan's Heroes).
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  The Pawnbroker (1964) was one of the few American films to deal with the aftermath of the Holocaust from the survivor's perspective.
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  The avant-garde cinema of Kenneth Anger, including his outlaw biker epic Scorpio Rising (1964), was known for openly using homoerotic and occultic imagery alongside soundtracks featuring artists like Ricky Nelson and numerous girl groups such as The Crystals.
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  Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was one of the films that started the New Hollywood era of American cinema, some of which were influenced by French New Wave auteurs Jean-Luc Godard and Francis Truffaut.
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  Shirley Clarke's Portrait of Jason (1967) documented the life of an LGBT African American nightclub performer Jason Holliday.
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  John Cassavetes's personal dramas, including the Oscar-nominated Faces (1968), were essential to the beginnings of American independent film.
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  The 1968 low-budget epic Night of the Living Dead was one of the first films to feature a postmodern interpretation of zombies.
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  2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), another acclaimed masterwork from Stanley Kubrick, has been frequently cited and voted as the best science fiction film of all time.
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  Salesman (1969), directed by the brotherly duo Albert and David Maysles, was one of the few documentary films that innovated a style called cinéma vérité.
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  King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) chronicles the struggles of Nobel Peace Prize-winning civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
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  An essential classic of feminist cinema, Barbera Loden's heist drama Wanda (1970)
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  Melvin Van Peebles's 1971 blaxploitation epic Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was one of the first films to incorporate black power ideology.
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  Malcolm McDowell in his Oscar-nominated role as "droog" gang leader Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick's controversial A Clockwork Orange (1971), a film full of "ultra-violence" to the point of being withdrawn from theaters in England until a year after the director's death.
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  The Maysles Brothers' Grey Gardens (1975) developed such a devoted following to the point of adapting it into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.
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  Joan Micklin Silver's Hester Street (1975) dealt with Jewish-American identity in 1890s New York and earned its female lead Carol Kane an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination.
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  David Lynch's debut feature, the 1977 experimental cult classic Eraserhead, was funded in part by the American Film Institute.
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  Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning boxing drama Raging Bull, released theatrically in the United States on December 19, 1980, and inducted in October 1990, holds the record for the shortest delay, having been inducted slightly shy of the 10-year minimum.
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  Godfrey Reggio's innovative experimental documentary Koyaanisqatsi (1983), featuring music by noted classical composer Philip Glass, was also spoofed on an episode of the animated sitcom The Simpsons.