National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Released by 20th Century Fox in 2002, Attack of the Clones marked George Lucas's return to directing after more than two decades, continuing the prequel trilogy he began with The Phantom Menace. The film pushed digital filmmaking further than any major studio release before it, shot entirely on high-definition video, and expanded the galaxy's political intrigue toward the Clone Wars that would define the saga's middle chapters. It remains a touchstone for the era when blockbuster production shifted decisively from film stock to digital capture.

This cell preserves a strip of 35mm from a print bearing Anakin Skywalker's name, the young Jedi apprentice whose arc from promise to tragedy anchors the prequel films and drives enduring collector interest across the franchise. A cell identified simply by character name typically comes from footage tied directly to his screen presence in this installment, the chapter where his impatience, longing, and turn toward darker instincts first take clear shape. For collectors, such a piece represents a physical fragment of that transformation, a tangible link to the character's most consequential on-screen evolution within the saga.