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. Built around Tom Hanks's performance as a slow-spoken Alabaman who drifts through three decades of American history, the film became a cultural phenomenon, sweeping the Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Its blend of technical innovation, folksy sentiment, and a soundtrack steeped in postwar nostalgia made it one of the defining studio releases of the decade, still widely referenced and collected today.
This cell preserves Forrest and Bubba, the friendship that anchors the film's early wartime chapters. Bubba, formally Benjamin Buford Blue, is remembered for his devotion to shrimp and to loyalty itself, the quiet heart beneath the film's larger canon of luck and destiny. A frame naming these two together points to camaraderie, the bond that shapes Forrest's later choices and gives the story its emotional throughline. For collectors, this pairing represents the tender, formative side of the picture, prized alongside its more famous images.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical 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 tearing or distortion.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a two-track variable-area format; Dolby Digital data blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, indicating a hybrid optical/Dolby Digital soundtrack configuration.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to quote characters reliably.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-amber tint consistent with processed colour print stock; dye image appears stable with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Fine longitudinal lines consistent with projection are visible across the frame area; no splices or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a theatrical release print of the film on record.
Era check
The hybrid variable-area optical plus Dolby Digital inter-perforation data block soundtrack configuration is consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print, matching the 1994 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 000063995
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
