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 Quentin Tarantino production that reshaped independent cinema's relationship to the mainstream. Its nonlinear structure, needle-drop soundtrack, and dialogue-driven set pieces earned the Palme d'Or and an Original Screenplay Oscar, cementing Tarantino as a defining voice of nineties American film and Miramax as a serious studio force.
This cell preserves Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace together, the pairing at the heart of the film's most quoted stretch, their dinner and dance at Jack Rabbit Slim's. Vincent, Marsellus Wallace's hired gun, and Mia, the boss's wife he's been told to entertain and not touch, form one of the era's most collected screen duos. A 35mm cell naming both figures marks the tension and chemistry that carries much of the picture's midsection, a physical fragment of the reel that ran through theater projectors during that very sequence.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; 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 dual bilateral variable-area pattern.
Edge print
Characters readable along the top edge include 'G', 'A', 'G', 'R', and numerals '9', '0', '3'; 'SAFETY' or stock name not fully legible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base shows a slight cool-blue tint consistent with a colour print stock; dye image appears shifted toward purple-violet, which is common for aged Eastman colour print stock.
Projection history
No visible splices; faint longitudinal lines consistent with projection wear are present across the frame area.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be from the same continuous shot, consistent with a release print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
Era check
The dual bilateral variable-area optical track, Eastman-type colour print stock with cool base, and key number 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 000062999
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
