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, adapted from Winston Groom's novel and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It swept the following year's Academy Awards, taking Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, and became a cultural touchstone for its blend of historical pastiche, sincerity, and technical innovation in blending live action with archival footage. Its box office success and lasting popularity made it one of the defining studio releases of the decade.
This cell preserves the film's central figure, Forrest Gump, as embodied by Tom Hanks in the role that anchored his second consecutive Oscar win. Collectors seek out Forrest not for a single scene but for what he represents across the whole picture, an everyman whose plainspoken presence carries the story through decades of American life. A cell bearing his name alone, without a marked scene, functions as a foundational reference point, the kind of frame that stands for the character's identity rather than one moment in his journey.
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 both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as two bilateral variable-area lines consistent with a stereo optical track; Dolby Digital data blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge.
Edge print
Numbers readable as '3 8 6' appear along the lower edge margin; remaining edge text is not legible in this capture.
Base & colour
The clear base shows a slight warm-yellow tint typical of processed acetate or polyester stock; the dye image appears to retain colour without obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Several fine longitudinal lines are visible running the length of the strip, consistent with projection or handling scratches on a used print.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the subject matter is consistent with the live-action feature film on record.
Era check
The combination of bilateral variable-area optical track and Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks 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 000063997
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
