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 (1994) arrived through Miramax as Quentin Tarantino's second feature, reshaping independent cinema with its nonlinear structure and dialogue-driven scenes. Winning the Palme d'Or and becoming a box office success far beyond typical arthouse expectations, it cemented Tarantino as a defining voice of nineties filmmaking and revived interest in genre pastiche, needle drops, and ensemble crime narratives. Its cultural footprint extends well past cinema, influencing fashion, music curation, and screenwriting for decades after release.
This cell holds Jules Winnfield, the Bible-quoting hitman whose presence anchors the film's philosophical and violent core, played by Samuel L. Jackson in a role that remains among the most quoted in American film. Collectors seek Jules material for the character's iconography, his suits, his speeches, and his arc toward reckoning. A single 35mm frame bearing his name carries the weight of that transformation, a physical trace of a performance that helped define the decade's crime cinema and remains central to the film's enduring identity.
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 three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both visible edges; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly cut with no torn edges visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the bottom edge of the picture area, appearing as a dual variable-area (stereo) format with a blue line separating it from the picture.
Edge print
Upper edge reads: 'A G A G' and numbers '3 0 6' (partially visible, strip may continue); lower edge shows a barcode block and a directional arrow symbol.
Base & colour
Base appears cream-to-clear with a warm, slightly magenta-shifted dye image consistent with colour print stock.
Projection history
Several fine longitudinal scratches are visible running the length of the strip, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a release print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Era check
The dual variable-area optical track, colour print stock, and 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 000062991
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
