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 groundbreaking visual effects that inserted Tom Hanks into decades of American history, the film became a cultural phenomenon, sweeping the Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor. Its blend of sincerity, historical pastiche, and folk wisdom made it one of the defining studio releases of the decade, still widely collected and discussed for its technical achievement and its portrait of an ordinary man moving through extraordinary times.
This cell captures the meeting between Forrest Gump and President John F. Kennedy, one of the film's celebrated historical insertions where Zemeckis placed Hanks alongside archival footage of a real American president. Collectors seek this moment for its place among the picture's signature effects sequences, the very device that announced the film's technical ambition to audiences in 1994. As a 35mm frame it preserves a specific splice of that encounter, a physical fragment of the scene where fiction and documented history were fused into a single cinematic image.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm positive 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 soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a narrow light-modulated stripe.
Edge print
Edge print reads, mirrored as captured: 'EASTMAN 25 1+T'
Base & colour
Base appears neutral to very slightly warm; the silver dye image is intact with good density and no visible fading.
Projection history
A horizontal band of light abrasion or emulsion scuffing is visible across all three frames, consistent with a print that has been projected.
Picture
Positive black-and-white 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 Eastman stock edge code, variable-area optical soundtrack, and safety base 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 000064031
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
