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 defining event of that decade's cinema, sweeping the Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, and lodging itself in popular culture through its blend of sincerity, historical pastiche, and technical innovation. Its box office success and enduring quotability made it one of the most widely recognized American films of its era, a touchstone for collectors of nineties studio filmmaking.
This cell centers on Forrest Gump himself, the film's guileless narrator and protagonist whose journey through decades of American life anchors the entire story. As the sole figure named here, he represents the film's emotional and narrative core, the everyman through whom war, politics, love, and loss are filtered. A single-character 35mm cell like this one distills that presence without competing figures or setting details, offering collectors a direct link to the character actors and audiences returned to again and again across the film's long cultural afterlife.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm color release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible 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 soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual-bilateral or variable-area pattern; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are not clearly distinguishable, and DTS or SDDS tracks are not visible in this capture.
Edge print
Edge print reads, mirrored as captured: 'EASTMAN 25 1+', consistent with Eastman color print stock numbering.
Base & colour
Base shows a warm yellowish-amber tint typical of processed color print stock; dye image appears intact with no obvious fading or red shift visible.
Projection history
Light longitudinal scratches are visible running along the length of the strip, consistent with evidence of a projected print.
Picture
Positive color image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot and are consistent with a release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Era check
The Eastman color print stock edge code, variable-area optical soundtrack, and warm base tint 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 000063998
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
