It’s okay: watching 'The Lion King' can now be classed as homework

Each year, 25 films with 'cultural, historic or aesthetic importance' are hand-picked to be preserved for posterity in the United States's National Film Registry of the Library on Congress, and this year's picks include such popular favourites as 'The Lion King', 'Thelma and Louise' and 'The Breakfast Club'.

'Motion pictures document our history and culture and serve as a mirror of our collective experiences,' said a spokesperson for the Library of Congress. 'The National Film Registry embraces the richness and diversity of film as an art form and celebrates the people who create the magic of cinema.'

So, that's official then: next time you fancy wasting away a lazy weekend afternoon by watching 'The Breakfast Club' just one more time or regressing to your childhood and weeping over 'The Lion King', it's okay: it's a bonafide intellectual activity, now fully endorsed by one of the highest American cultural institutions.

The 25 films added this year to the library also include Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' from 1963, Robert Zemeckis's 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' from 1988 and Wes Anderson's 'Rushmore' from 1998.

We're hoping they move on to TV series soon because we need some sort of higher justification for all the hours we spent streaming Netflix this year.

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