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 cultural touchstone, sweeping the Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Tom Hanks, and blending decades of American history with groundbreaking visual effects. Its success cemented Hanks as one of Hollywood's defining leading men and gave audiences a story about resilience, simplicity, and unexpected wisdom that remains widely quoted and referenced three decades later.
This cell, marked simply Forrest Gump #44, preserves a frame of Tom Hanks in his signature role, the gentle Alabama man whose life intersects with pivotal moments of twentieth century America. Collectors seek out pieces like this precisely because they hold a fragment of that performance, one that earned Hanks his second consecutive Oscar and became inseparable from his public identity. A numbered cell such as this typically comes from the film's general reel footage, offering a tangible connection to the character's journey without pinpointing a single scripted line or scene, simply Forrest himself, caught mid-story.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both visible edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A dual variable-area optical track runs along one edge beside the perforations; no Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, DTS timecode line, or SDDS outer-edge tracks are discernible.
Edge print
Edge print reads, mirrored as photographed: EASTMAN 25 T+1 — consistent with Eastman color print stock coding.
Base & colour
Base shows a warm golden-amber tint typical of processed color print stock; dye image appears intact with no obvious fading or strong color shift.
Projection history
Light vertical scratches are visible running through the frame area, 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 and depict content consistent with a stadium sports sequence matching the film on record.
Era check
The dual variable-area optical track, Eastman color print stock edge coding, and warm amber base are all consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print, matching the 1994 production date 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 000064008
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
