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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000001808 Tap to enlarge
MOVIEThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Movie Trailer
SCENEAragorn and Boromir
FILM FORMAT35mm
YEAR2001
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000001808

FILM NOTES

FILM NOTES

New Line Cinema staked its future on Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkien when The Fellowship of the Ring arrived in December 2001, gambling on a single director shooting three films back to back in New Zealand. The film became a cultural event, reviving the fantasy genre for a mainstream audience and earning thirteen Academy Award nominations. Trailers released ahead of the premiere were themselves objects of anticipation, circulated widely and dissected by fans hungry for any glimpse of Middle-earth before the full picture reached theaters, making surviving trailer reels a distinct category of interest for collectors of the series.

This cell preserves a moment from that promotional reel featuring Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor and the Fellowship's ranger-king, alongside Boromir, son of the Steward of Gondor and a man torn between duty and temptation. Their pairing on screen reflects a central tension of the story, two men bound by loyalty to the same cause yet shaped by different destinies. A trailer cell like this one captures the studio's early framing of that relationship, offered to audiences as a taste of the alliances and conflicts to come, and it remains sought after by collectors tracing the character dynamics that would define the trilogy.

Authentication Findings 8 checks

Consistent with a 35mm theatrical trailer release print from the Lord of the Rings series.

Gauge
35mm, 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.
Soundtrack
Not visible in this capture; the area beside the picture frames is obscured by the decorative mount.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears neutral to slightly cool; dye image shows saturated colour with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No scratches, splice marks, or cue marks are visible in this capture.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be from the same continuous shot and show title text reading 'The Return of the King', consistent with a trailer end-card for a Lord of the Rings release.
Era check
A saturated colour positive on what appears to be a neutral safety base, carrying a 'The Return of the King' title card, is consistent with a Lord of the Rings theatrical trailer print from the early 2000s.
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 000063668
Original Film Capture As received
The film strip as photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size