娱乐英语新闻:"Bambi," "Forrest Gump" among films to be preserved in U.S. film registry

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 1942 Walt Disney's timeless classic "Bambi" and the 1994 hit "Forrest Gump" are among 25 films named to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the U.S. National Film Registry, the Library of Congress announced on Wednesday.

Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental movies, the library said in a press release. This year's selections bring the number of films in the registry to 575.

Representing the rich creative and cultural diversity of the American cinematic experience, this year's selection of films range from the animation classic "Bambi" and Billy Wilder's "The Lost Weekend," a landmark film about the devastating effects of alcoholism, to Oscar-winning movies, including the 1994 smash hit "Forrest Gump," starring Tom Hanks, and the 1991 thriller "The Silence of the Lambs," starring Jody Foster and Anthony Hopkins.

With its inclusion in the registry, the famous line by Forrest Gump in the film "My momma always said, `Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get'" will be immortalized among the U.S. national treasures in the world's largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings. "Forrest Gump," the most recent film in the list, won six Oscar awards including that for Best Picture in 1995.

Among the list, the oldest films are two 1912 silent films "The Cry of the Children," which is about the pre-World War I child labor reform movement, and "A Cure for Pokeritis," which features the earliest U.S. comic film superstar John Bunny. Another silent movie "The Kid," the first full-length feature produced by comedy master Charlie Chaplin, was also selected.

The list also includes home movies of the famous Nicholas Brothers dancing team and such avant-garde films as George Kuchar' s hilarious short "I, an Actress."

Paying tribute to the technological advances brought by the use of computers, "A Computer Animated Hand," produced in 1972 by Pixar Animation Studios co-founder Ed Catmull, is also included in the selection. The one-minute film, one of the earliest examples of 3D computer animation, displays a hand's turning, opening and closing, pointing at the viewers and flexing its fingers.

This year's list was chosen from 2,228 candidate films in a program created by the National Film Preservation Act, in which the Librarian of Congress each year names 25 films that are " culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

"These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in the statement. "Our film heritage must be protected because these cinematic treasures document our history and culture and reflect our hopes and dreams."

For each title named to the registry, the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation works to ensure that the film is preserved for future generations, either through the Library's massive motion-picture preservation program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion-picture studios and independent film makers.