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 went on to sweep the Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Its blend of sentiment, technical innovation, and cultural nostalgia made it one of the defining studio releases of the 1990s, a film that continues to anchor conversations about American cinema of that decade.
This cell preserves Jenny Curran, the lifelong companion to the film's central figure and one of its most emotionally central characters. Collectors seek her frames because Jenny represents the counterpoint to Forrest's steadiness, embodying the era's turbulence and longing across the story's span. A 35mm cell bearing her name alone suggests a moment built entirely around her presence, isolated from the surrounding narrative machinery, offering a physical fragment of the character's screen life for those assembling a study of the film's key figures.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical 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 one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single bilateral variable-area track
Edge print
Partial characters visible at lower right edge reading '▲◆+' with additional numeric or key-number text not fully legible in this capture
Base & colour
Base appears warm cream-yellow, consistent with a colour dye-coupler print; dye image shows warm tones with no obvious fading or red shift
Projection history
Light longitudinal scratches visible along the base surface, 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, consistent with a theatrical release print of the film on record
Era check
The bilateral variable-area optical track, warm polyester-base stock, and colour dye image are all consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print of Forrest Gump (1994)
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 000064026
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
