National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2012
“A visionary and complex film, the science-fiction epic "The Matrix" employed state-of-the-art special effects, production design and computer-generated animation to tell a story—steeped in mythological, literary, and philosophical references—about a revolt against a conspiratorial regime.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
Lilly Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Studio
Warner Bros. Entertainment · Village Roadshow Pictures · Silver Pictures · 136 min
Box office
$467.2M worldwide on a $63M budget
Honors
Academy Awards — 4 wins, 4 nominationsBritish Academy Film Awards — 2 winsSaturn Award — 2 winsAll 8 wins · 4 nominations on record
Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing
Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects
Academy Awards: Best Film Editing
Academy Awards: Best Sound
British Academy Film Awards: Best Sound
British Academy Film Awards: Best Special Visual Effects
Saturn Award: Best Director
Saturn Award: Best Science Fiction Film
Scholarship
Named in the title of 1 peer-reviewed work
Examples
Biofilms: the matrix revisited — Trends in Microbiology, 2004
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
The Matrix arrived from Warner Bros. in 1999, a studio production that redefined big-budget science fiction for a generade raised on cyberpunk and philosophy alike. Directed by the Wachowskis, it married martial arts choreography, bullet-time visual effects, and a story about hidden reality into something that reshaped action cinema and entered wider cultural language. Its influence extended well beyond the screen, touching fashion, technology discourse, and film grammar for years afterward, making it one of the defining studio releases of its decade.
This cell centers on Neo, the character whose awakening drives the entire narrative, making him the figure most sought after by collectors building out a Matrix run. A moment framed around the Matrix being explained points to one of the film's foundational passages, where the nature of the simulated world is laid out to Neo and, through him, to the audience. Such sequences carry weight beyond spectacle, anchoring the philosophical core of the story. A 35mm cell from this stretch offers a physical fragment of that exposition, a tangible piece of the scene that set the film's central idea in motion.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of The Matrix (1999).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both visible 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, appearing as a two-track variable-area format; a band of dense digital data blocks consistent with Dolby Digital is visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight blue-cyan tint consistent with a colour print stock; dye image reads as neutral with no obvious red shift or fading.
Projection history
Light horizontal scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and the visual content is consistent with a production matching the film on record.
Era check
The combination of variable-area optical track with Dolby Digital data blocks in the perforation gaps is consistent with a theatrical release print from the late 1990s, matching the 1999 release date of the film 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 000063831
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
