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. Blending historical footage with an original narrative, it followed an ordinary man's improbable path through decades of American life. The film swept the Academy Awards, taking Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, and its blend of sentiment, technical innovation, and folk wisdom made it a defining cultural touchstone of the decade.
This cell preserves Young Forrest and Young Jenny, portrayed by Michael Conner Humphreys and Hanna Hall, the childhood counterparts to the adult characters who anchor the film's emotional core. Their bond established in youth becomes the thread running through the entire story, making early frames of these two performers especially prized among collectors tracing character origins. As a childhood-era cell, it represents the foundation of the film's central relationship, the beginning point from which decades of narrative unfold, a quiet marker of where the larger story truly begins.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm color release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible torn or deformed perforations.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, with what appears to be a second narrower track adjacent, consistent with a stereo variable-area configuration; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are not clearly distinguishable at this size.
Edge print
Edge text reads 'SAFETY FIL' (truncated) on one edge, mirrored as 'LIF YTEFAS' in the capture.
Base & colour
Base shows a warm amber-tan tint typical of processed color print stock; dye image appears saturated with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
No visible splices or cue marks; faint longitudinal lines are present on the base side consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive color 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 safety base, warm amber stock tint, variable-area optical soundtrack, and color dye saturation 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 000063987
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
