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, adapting Winston Groom's novel into a sweeping account of one man's passage through the second half of the American century. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and anchored by Tom Hanks in the title role, the film swept the Academy Awards and became a cultural touchstone, its innovations in visual effects allowing its hero to walk through decades of real historical footage. It remains one of the defining studio productions of its decade, both a technical showpiece and a sentimental favorite for audiences worldwide.
This 35mm cell preserves a strip of Jenny Curran, Forrest's lifelong companion and the emotional counterweight to his story. As the film's most complex supporting figure, Jenny represents the turbulence of the era Forrest moves through untouched, making any frame bearing her name a sought piece for those building out the picture's central relationship. Cells like this one exist as physical fragments of the release print itself, small remnants of the reel that once carried her presence through theaters.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital composite optical 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 visible torn or deformed holes.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the bottom edge, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area pattern consistent with a stereo optical track; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, indicating a Dolby Digital optical composite track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears warm to slightly amber-tinted; dye image reads with warm brown tones, no obvious red shift or significant fading visible.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has been projected.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Era check
The composite Dolby Digital plus variable-area optical soundtrack format was introduced in 1992 and was standard on major studio release prints from 1992 onward, fully consistent with a 1994 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 000063983
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
