News

September 22, 2023: I don’t usually post about theatrical releases, but Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense (1984/2021) get re-released in IMAX theaters in the U.S. today in a special restored 40th anniversary print. Regular theatrical release next week.

September 6, 2023: The rare Film Registry title A Time for Burning (1966/2005) is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

August 7, 2023: Grapevine Video has announced that they will be ending operations on September 6. They may still releases the occasional new title, but September 6 is the last day to purchase existing inventory from their website.

August 7, 2023: R.I.P. William Friedkin, director of the Film Registry titles The French Connection (1971/2005) and The Exorcist (1973/2010)

July 17, 2023: Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932/1994) returns to print and makes its Blu-ray Disc debut this October thanks to the Criterion Collection.

July 13, 2023: Olive Films has officially folded. Most of their titles are still available from Amazon. (See September 16, 2022 below.)

June 15, 2023: Luis Valdez’s La Bamba (1987/2017) returns to print on Blu-ray Disc this September thanks to the Criterion Collection.

June 12, 2023: Ida Lupino’s Outrage (1950/2020) gets its first U.S. release on Blu-ray Disc and DVD this August thanks to Kino Lorber. (See February 16, 2023 below.)

May 31, 2023: Site News: Due to the amount of spam messages I’ve been receiving, I have disabled comments on this website.

May 31, 2023: Josef Berne’s Jam Session (1942/2001) returns to print and makes its Blu-ray Disc debut on July 25 as part of Kino Lorber’s Soundies: The Ultimate Collection.

May 18, 2023: I just learned that Robert Nakamura’s Manzanar (1971/2022) is available on DVD at non-institutional prices from Visual Communications. Click on the title for details.

May 15, 2023: Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman (1996/2021) returns to print and makes its Blu-ray Disc debut on July 11 thanks to the Criterion Collection.

May 14, 2023: Lynn Reynolds’s newly restored Sky High (1922/1998) makes it’s Blu-ray Disc debut this June thanks to Undercrank Productions.

May 10, 2023: R.I.P. Kenneth Anger, director of the Film Registry titles Eaux d’Artifice (1953/1993) and Scorpio Rising (1963/2022).

May 10, 2023: Albert Parker’s The Black Pirate (1926/1993) and Abraham Polonsky’s Force of Evil (1948/1994) both return to print on Blu-ray Disc this July thanks to the Cohen Media Group and Kino Lorber, respectively.

May 8, 2023: Site News: I have added an FAQ page.

May 5, 2023: Site News: I have added a new list to the main menu: Significant firsts in cinema and Film Registry history.

May 2, 2023: Site News: I have added links to Letterboxd for nearly all of the titles on the Film Registry (there are Letterboxd pages for all but two of the titles).

May 2, 2023: I just learned that Julien Bryan’s Siege (1940/2006) is available on DVD. Click on the title for details.

May 1, 2023: I just learned that Wilfred Jackson’s The Old Mill (1937/2015) is available as a bonus feature on most DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions of Bambi (1942/2011).

April 20, 2023: Noel M. Smith’s newly restored Clash of the Wolves (1925/2004) makes it’s Blu-ray Disc debut this June thanks to Kino Lorber.

April 18, 2023: The Warner Archive DVDs of Robert Z. Leonard and W.S. Van Dyke’s Naughty Marietta (1935/2003) and Vincente Minnelli’s Cabin in the Sky (1943/2020) are back in print.

April 16, 2023: Site News: I’ve added my 2023 nominations to the My Nominations page.

March 28, 2023: The rare Film Registry title The Crowd (1928/1989) can be seen online at the Internet Archive. Thanks to Benjamin Wilson for alerting me to this.

February 28, 2023: Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer (1966/2002) returns to print on DVD today thanks to BayView Entertainment.

February 16, 2023: I just learned that Ida Lupino’s Outrage (1950/2020) was released on Blu-ray Disc in Australia last year. As far as I can tell, this is the first ever home video release of the film anywhere. There are rumors of an upcoming U.S. Blu-ray Disc release. I will report it here if and when the rumors are confirmed. (See June 12, 2023 above.)

February 11, 2023: The very rare Film Registry title The Girl Without a Soul (1917/2018) can be seen online for a fee through the George Eastman Museum. Click on the title for details.

December 31, 2022: The rare Film Registry titles Suzanne, Suzanne (1982/2016), Growing Up Female (1971/2011), Betty Tells Her Story (1972/2022), and The Hole (1962/2013) are all currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

December 29, 2022: Mr. Benjamin Wilson has added a nearly complete playlist of Film Registry titles to YouTube.

December 20, 2022: Arthur Hiller’s The Hospital (1971/1995) returns to print today thanks to new label Sandpiper Pictures.

December 14, 2022: The 2022 additions to the Film Registry were announced this morning. Here they are:

  1. Mardi Gras Carnival (1898)
  2. Cab Calloway Home Movies (1948-1951)
  3. Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
  4. Charade (1963)
  5. Scorpio Rising (1963)
  6. Behind Every Good Man… (1967)
  7. Titicut Follies (1967)
  8. Mingus (1968)
  9. Manzanar (1971)
  10. Betty Tells Her Story (1972)
  11. Super Fly (1972)
  12. Attica (1974)
  13. Carrie (1976)
  14. Union Maids (1976)
  15. Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977)
  16. Bush Mama (1979)
  17. The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982)
  18. itam hakim, hopiit (1984)
  19. Hairspray (1988)
  20.  The Little Mermaid (1989)
  21.  Tongues Untied (1989)
  22.  When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
  23.  House Party (1990)
  24.  Iron Man (2008)
  25.  Pariah (2011)

I have updated the entire site to reflect the new additions.

December 2, 2022: Sight and Sound Magazine published their decennial lists of the best films of all time as voted by critics and directors. Several Film Registry titles made both lists.

September 24, 2022: Caveat emptor: Issues are being reported about Paramount’s 4K Ultra HD of Byron Haskin’s The War of the Worlds (1953/2011) (and the Blu-ray Disc of When Worlds Collide from the same package). Details here and here.

September 16, 2022: Olive Films titles can no longer be ordered through the label’s website, though all of their titles appear to still be in print. I have removed links to their site from the pages for their titles.

September 8, 2022: Criterion announced the release of Andrew Stanton’s WALL•E (2008/2021). The announcement calls it “our first collaboration with Disney and Pixar.” Hopefully this means more Disney-Pixar titles are forthcoming from Criterion.

August 10, 2022: Site News: Added the first photograph to this website. Check it out on the page for Think of Me First as a Person (1975/2006).

July 24, 2022: After being out of print on home video for years, King Kong (1933/1991) finally gets re-released on Blu-ray Disc by Warner Archive.

May 31, 2022: Wayne Wang’s Chan Is Missing (1982/1995) returns to print and makes its Blu-ray Disc debut thank to the Criterion Collection.

March 5, 2022: Site News: I’ve added my 2022 nominations to the My Nominations page.

February 14, 2022: R.I.P. Ivan Reitman, director of the Film Registry title Ghostbusters (1984/2015).

February 12, 2022: Site news: I have added a translation and commentary to the page for George Veditz’s Preservation of the Sign Language (1913/2010).

February 8, 2022: Mervyn LeRoy’s Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933/2003) makes its Blu-ray Disc debut today thanks to Warner Archive.

January 19, 2022: British label Indicator/Powerhouse has announced that it will begin distribution of their titles in the US and Canada. Details here.

January 7, 2022: R.I.P. Sidney Poitier, star of the Film Registry titles In the Heat of the Night (1967/2002), Porgy and Bess (1959/2011), Blackboard Jungle (1955/2016), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967/2017), and Lilies of the Field (1963/2020).

January 6, 2022: R.I.P. Peter Bogdanovich, director of the Film Registry title The Last Picture Show (1971/1998).

December 14, 2021: The 2021 additions to the Film Registry were announced this morning. Here they are:
1. Ringling Brothers Parade Film (1902)
2. Jubilo (1919)
3. The Flying Ace (1926)
4. Hell-Bound Train (1930)
5. Flowers and Trees (1932)
6. Strangers on a Train (1951)
7. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
8. Evergreen (1965)
9. Requiem-29 (1970)
10. The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
11. Pink Flamingos (1972)
12. Sounder (1972)
13. The Long Goodbye (1973)
14. Cooley High (1975)
15. Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979)
16. Chicana (1979)
17. The Wobblies (1979)
18. Star Wars Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (1983)
19. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
20. Stop Making Sense (1984)
21. Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1987)
22. The Watermelon Woman (1996)
23. Selena (1997)
24. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
25. WALL•E (2008)
I have updated the entire site to reflect the new additions.

September 21, 2021: R.I.P. Melvin Van Peebles, director of the Film Registry title Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971/2020).

August 11, 2021: The Criterion Collection announced today that they will finally start releasing 4K Ultra HD discs. Among the first six scheduled are Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941/1989). I will add this title to the Release Calendar as soon as it’s officially announced. Details here.

July 5th, 2021: R.I.P. Richard Donner, director of the Film Registry titles The Goonies (1985/2017) and Superman (1978/2017).

June 2, 2021: Milestone Films has struck a new distribution deal with Kino Lorber. Kino Lorber will now be the exclusive distributor of Milestone’s home video titles. Details here.

February 9, 2021: After being out of print on home video for years, Kino Lorber releases Bert Stern’s Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959/1999) on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

January 7, 2021: R.I.P. Michael Apted, director of the Film Registry title Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980/2019).

December 31, 2020: R.I.P. Joan Micklin Silver, director of the Film Registry title Hester Street (1975/2011).

December 14, 2020: The 2020 additions to the Film Registry were announced this morning. Here they are:

  1. Suspense (1913)
  2. Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
  3. Bread (1918)
  4. The Battle of the Century (1927)
  5. With Car and Camera Around the World (1929)
  6. Cabin in the Sky (1943)
  7. Outrage (1950)
  8. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
  9. Lilies of the Field (1963)
  10. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
  11. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)
  12. Wattstax (1973)
  13. Grease (1978)
  14. The Blues Brothers (1980)
  15. Losing Ground (1982)
  16. Illusions (1982)
  17. The Joy Luck Club (1993)
  18. The Devil Never Sleeps (1994)
  19. Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
  20. The Ground (2001)
  21. Shrek (2001)
  22. Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege (2006)
  23. The Hurt Locker (2008)
  24. The Dark Knight (2008)
  25. Freedom Riders (2010)