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 crime picture that reshuffled its timeline and its genre in the same breath. Quentin Tarantino's second feature won the Palme d'Or and the Original Screenplay Oscar, revived John Travolta's career, and helped push independent cinema into the mainstream. Its dialogue, soundtrack, and structure became reference points for a generation of filmmakers, and the movie remains a fixture of best-of lists nearly three decades later.
This cell holds Mia Wallace, Marsellus Wallace's wife, played by Uma Thurman in a performance that became one of the film's defining images. Mia sits at the center of the picture's most quoted stretch, the dance contest and dinner date with Vincent Vega that turns a simple errand into something charged and unpredictable. Collectors seek her out because she represents the film's stylish, unpredictable heart, a character remembered as much for presence as for plot function. A 35mm cell bearing her name preserves a fragment of that stretch of film, a physical remnant of the scene rather than a description of it.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical 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 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, consistent with a mono or stereo optical release print.
Edge print
Partial text readable along the top edge reads: T, A G, G, A, V E, R T — likely a fragment of a Kodak key-number sequence; full code not visible due to crop.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-amber tint typical of processed acetate safety stock; dye image shows rich colour saturation with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Faint horizontal lines are visible across the frame area consistent with projection wear; no splices or cue marks are visible in this capture.
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 variable-area optical soundtrack, Kodak safety stock base tint, and rich dye-transfer colour palette 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 000063003
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
