Originally intended to be a 30-minute short film produced for the Public Broadcasting Service, it eventually led to five years of filming and 250 hours of footage. It premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. It was only the second documentary film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing (the first being the 1970 Oscar-winning "Woodstock"). Despite its length (171 minutes) and unlikely commercial genre, it received high critical and popular acclaim, and grossed over $11 million worldwide. It was #1 on the Current TV special "50 Documentaries to See Before You Die". In 2005, "Hoop Dreams" was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation.