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 in 1994 through Miramax, a low-budget production that became a cultural landmark and reshaped independent cinema's relationship with mainstream success. Quentin Tarantino's nonlinear crime saga, with its razor-sharp dialogue and pop-culture fluency, earned the Palme d'Or and an Academy Award for its screenplay, cementing its place as one of the defining American films of the decade. Its ensemble cast and structural daring influenced a generation of filmmakers who followed.
This cell pairs Winston Wolfe with Jimmie Dimmick, two figures whose brief scenes together carry outsized weight in the film's mythology. The Wolf is prized among collectors as the embodiment of cool competence under pressure, summoned to solve a crisis with brisk professionalism. Jimmie represents the ordinary world colliding with the criminal one, his suburban household suddenly a stage for extraordinary trouble. A 35mm cell from this pairing preserves a moment of tonal collision, the everyday and the extraordinary meeting in the same frame.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital theatrical release print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, with a dense Dolby Digital data-block pattern visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge.
Edge print
Edge code reads 'KV 18 2332 4028+32' (mirrored as captured); 'SAFETY FILM' not legible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base shows a warm amber-yellow tint consistent with a colour print stock; dye image appears slightly red-shifted with a magenta cast.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across the frame area, 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 combination of Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks alongside a variable-area optical track is consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print, matching the 1994 release date on record.
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 000062994
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
