National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2011
“As "Forrest Gump," Tom Hanks portrays an earnest, guileless "everyman" whose open-heartedness and sense of the unexpected unwittingly draws him into some of the most iconic events of the 1960s and 1970s.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
Robert Zemeckis
Studio
Paramount Pictures · 142 min
Box office
$678.2M worldwide on a $55M budget
Honors
Academy Awards — 6 wins, 13 nominationsNational Board of Review — 2 winsAmanda Award — 1 winAll 9 wins · 13 nominations on record
Academy Awards: Best Director
Academy Awards: Best Picture
Academy Awards: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Academy Awards: Best Film Editing
Academy Awards: Best Actor
Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects
National Board of Review: Best Film
National Board of Review: National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Amanda Award: Best Foreign Feature Film
Scholarship
Named in the title of 31 peer-reviewed works
Examples
Forrest Gump — Iverieli (National Parliamentary Library of Georgia), 2015
Forrest Gump, 2022
Forrest Gump: — State University of New York Press eBooks, 2017
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Forrest Gump arrived from Paramount Pictures in the summer of 1994, directed by Robert Zemeckis and adapted from Winston Groom's novel. It became a cultural touchstone almost immediately, sweeping the Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, and threading its title character through three decades of American history. The film's blend of sincerity, technical innovation, and quotable warmth made it one of the defining studio releases of the decade, still widely collected and discussed thirty years on.
This cell brings together the film's three central men: Forrest Gump himself, the gentle everyman whose voice carries the whole story; Bubba Blue, his Army friend whose shrimp dreams became a lasting piece of movie lore; and Lieutenant Dan Taylor, the officer whose arc of loss and redemption anchors much of the film's emotional weight. A frame uniting all three speaks to the bond formed in Vietnam that shapes everything after, a pairing collectors prize for representing the friendship at the story's core.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along one edge, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data block pattern visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, consistent with a dual-format optical/digital track.
Edge print
Numbers readable as '3 8 6' are visible along the lower edge; remaining edge text appears mirrored and cannot be fully resolved in this capture.
Base & colour
Base shows a warm cream-to-amber tint typical of processed acetate safety stock; dye image appears well-saturated with no obvious colour shift or fading.
Projection history
No visible scratches, splice marks, or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Era check
The combination of variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, and warm acetate safety base is 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 000063981
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
