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 on then-groundbreaking visual effects that placed its protagonist inside decades of American history, the film swept the Academy Awards, taking Best Picture, Director, and Actor for Tom Hanks. Its blend of sincerity, spectacle, and folk wisdom made it a defining cultural touchstone of the 1990s, one that still commands attention among collectors of American studio cinema.
This cell preserves a strip centered on the film's two central figures, Jenny Curran and Forrest Gump, whose bond anchors the entire narrative arc. Their relationship, stretching from childhood through adulthood, gives the story its emotional throughline beneath the historical pageantry. Cells pairing these two are prized precisely because their connection is the film's true subject, the constant against which every other episode is measured. A 35mm frame capturing them together offers a physical fragment of that enduring pairing, a tangible piece of the story's emotional core.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm color 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; punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area pattern.
Edge print
Edge print reads, mirrored as captured: EASTMAN 25 1†1
Base & colour
Base shows a warm cream-yellow tint typical of processed color print stock; dye image appears intact with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light longitudinal scratches are visible running parallel to the film length, consistent with projection through a gate.
Picture
Positive color image; all three frames appear to be the same shot with no cut between them, consistent with a release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Era check
The Eastman color print stock, 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 000064001
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
