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, a Cannes Palme d'Or winner that reshaped independent cinema's relationship to the mainstream. Quentin Tarantino's nonlinear crime saga, with its dialogue-driven scenes and eclectic soundtrack, turned Harvey Keitel-era indie financing into box office gold and revived John Travolta's career in the process. It remains a touchstone of nineties filmmaking, endlessly quoted and studied for its structure and style.
This cell holds Mia Wallace, Marsellus Wallace's wife, whose scenes with Vincent Vega carry much of the film's tension and dark comedy. Collectors seek her frames for the character's magnetism and her role as a fulcrum in the plot's most memorable stretch. A 35mm cell built around her alone suggests a moment isolated for its own weight, without other figures to share it, the kind of frame that stands as a compact record of her presence in the story rather than a specific scene's full context.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital optical release print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
Two variable-area optical tracks run beside the picture area, consistent with a stereo optical print; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the inner edge, indicating a Dolby Digital SR·D release print.
Base appears slightly warm-amber; the dye image retains visible colour saturation with no obvious fading or strong colour shift at this size.
Projection history
Light vertical scratches are visible running through 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 dual variable-area optical tracks is characteristic of mid-1990s theatrical release prints, consistent with a 1994 production.
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 000062997
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
