The Library of Congress has announced its annual selection of 25 titles to be inducted into the National Film Registry. “Selected for their cultural, historic, or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage,” this year’s selection includes five films directed or co-directed by women: Eloyce Gist and James Gist’s “Hellbound Train” (1930); Sylvia Morales’ “Chicana” (1979); Deborah Shaffer and Stewart Bird’s “The Wobblies” (1979); Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña’s “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” (1987); and Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman (1996).

Hailing from self-taught filmmakers and evangelists Eloyce and James Gist, “Hellbound Train” sees a train full of sinners heading toward damnation. Morales’ “Chicana” features a collage of artworks, still photographs, and documentary footage highlighting Chicana women and their fight for rights and wages. “The Wobblies,” from Shaffer and Bird, is a documentary that spotlights the Industrial Workers of the World — AKA The Wobblies — and their mass-scale unionization efforts. Choy and Tajima-Peña’s “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” is a documentary investigating the murder of a Chinese engineer living in Detroit by two white men. In addition to directing “The Watermelon Woman,” Dunye wrote and stars in the pic about a young Black lesbian video clerk and aspiring filmmaker.

“The 2021 selections represent one of the most diverse classes of films to enter the registry, with movies dating back nearly 120 years and representing the work of Hollywood studios, independent filmmakers, documentarians, women directors, filmmakers of color, students, and the silent era of film,” a press release from the Library of Congress details. The selections bring the number of films in the registry to 825, representing a portion of the 1.7 million films in the Library’s collections.

“Films help reflect our cultural history and creativity — and show us new ways of looking at ourselves — though movies haven’t always been deemed worthy of preservation. The National Film Registry will preserve our cinematic heritage, and we are proud to add 25 more films this year,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “The Library of Congress will work with our partners in the film community to ensure these films are preserved for generations to come.”