National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2013
“By turns utterly derivative and audaciously original, Quentin Tarantino's mordantly wicked Möbius strip of a movie influenced a generation of filmmakers and stands as a milestone in the evolution of independent cinema in the United States, making it one of the few films on the National Film Registry as notable for its lasting impact on the film industry as its considerable artistic merits.”
Independent Spirit Awards — 3 wins, 4 nominationsLos Angeles Film Critics Association — 3 winsNational Board of Review — 3 winsBritish Academy Film Awards — 2 wins, 8 nominationsAll 23 wins · 45 nominations on record
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Director
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Male Lead
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Screenplay
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Actor
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Director
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Film
National Board of Review: Best Director
National Board of Review: National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
National Board of Review: Best Film
British Academy Film Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role
British Academy Film Awards: Best Original Screenplay
Academy Awards: Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Golden Globe Awards: Best Screenplay
David di Donatello: Best Foreign Actor
Cannes Film Festival: Palme d'Or
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Director
National Society of Film Critics Award: Best Screenplay
National Society of Film Critics Award: Best Director
National Society of Film Critics Award: Best Film
MTV Movie Award: Best Dance Sequence
MTV Movie Award: Best Movie
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award: Best Film
London Film Critics Circle Award: Actor of the Year
Scholarship
Named in the title of 25 peer-reviewed works
Examples
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Pulp Fiction arrived from Miramax in 1994 as a Quentin Tarantino picture that reshaped independent cinema's place in the mainstream. Built from interlocking crime stories told out of sequence, it won the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Original Screenplay, and its dialogue driven style, soundtrack, and structure influenced a generation of filmmakers. The cast, led by John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, and Uma Thurman, became inseparable from the film's identity, and the picture remains a touchstone for how 1990s studio filmmaking absorbed a distinctly independent sensibility.
This cell holds Jules Winnfield, the hitman played by Samuel L. Jackson, whose scripture recitations and philosophical turns made him one of the most quoted characters in modern film. Collectors seek him out because he anchors the movie's tonal shifts between violence and comedy, menace and reflection. A single 35mm cell of Jules represents a physical fragment of that performance, isolated from any surrounding scene, useful as a character study piece rather than a narrative one. It stands alongside other principal cast cells as a marker of screen presence rather than plot.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds two complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a two-track variable-area format; Dolby Digital data blocks are not clearly distinguishable at this resolution, and no DTS timecode line or SDDS outer-edge tracks are confirmed visible.
Edge print
Edge print reads mirrored as printed: 'KA 18 5332 3971' along the lower edge margin.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint consistent with colour print stock; the dye image shows warm colour rendering with no obvious fading or strong red shift.
Projection history
Light longitudinal lines consistent with projection wear are visible running through the frame area; no splices or cue marks are seen in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; both frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, consistent with a release print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, colour print stock base, and Kodak edge coding format are all consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000062990
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
