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 in the summer of 1994 from Paramount Pictures, directed by Robert Zemeckis and adapted from Winston Groom's novel. It became one of the defining American films of the decade, sweeping the Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Tom Hanks. Blending historical footage with an original narrative, the film's mix of sentiment, technical innovation, and quotable dialogue made it a cultural touchstone, appealing to mainstream audiences while pushing visual effects forward for years to come.
This cell preserves Lieutenant Dan Taylor, the Vietnam veteran whose arc runs alongside Forrest's own journey and whose performance by Gary Sinise remains one of the film's most acclaimed. Collectors seek out this character for his complexity, a soldier shaped by war, loss, and an eventual reckoning with fate. A cell bearing his name marks a specific point tied to his presence in the story, offering a physical fragment of a role that anchors much of the film's emotional weight and thematic depth.
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 complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punching appears 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 a two-track variable-area format; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, indicating a hybrid optical/Dolby Digital soundtrack configuration consistent with mid-1990s release prints.
Edge print
Not fully legible in this capture; partial markings are present along the edge but cannot be quoted with certainty.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint; the dye image reads as a positive colour print with no obvious red shift or significant fading visible.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is 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 continuous shot, and the subject matter is consistent with a live-action feature matching the film on record.
Era check
The hybrid variable-area optical plus Dolby Digital inter-perforation data block soundtrack format was introduced in 1992 and was standard on major studio release prints from 1993 onward, placing this strip squarely within the release window of the 1994 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 000064024
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
