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 Academy Award winning performance, the film blended folk history with sentiment and technical innovation, inserting its protagonist into decades of American life through then groundbreaking visual effects. It became one of the defining crossover hits of the decade, earning six Oscars including Best Picture, and remains a touchstone for collectors of nineties studio filmmaking.
This cell centers on Forrest and Jenny, the two figures whose bond anchors the entire narrative from childhood through adulthood. Jenny Curran represents the restless counterpart to Forrest's steadiness, and any footage pairing them speaks to the emotional throughline that critics and audiences alike point to as the heart of the picture. For collectors, a cell naming both characters together is prized precisely because their scenes carry the film's thematic weight, standing apart from the historical set pieces and offering instead the quieter, personal core around which the rest of the story turns.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital composite optical 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 track is visible running along the lower edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual-stripe variable-area format; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the lower edge, indicating a Dolby Digital optical composite track
Edge print
Not fully legible in this capture; faint edge markings are present but cannot be quoted with certainty
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint; dye image shows rich colour saturation consistent with an intact colour print
Projection history
Light horizontal scratches are visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, consistent with a release print of Forrest Gump (1994)
Era check
The composite Dolby Digital optical track alongside a variable-area analogue track is consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print, matching the 1994 release of Forrest Gump
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 000064014
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
