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 defining film of the decade, sweeping the Academy Awards with wins for Best Picture, Director, and Actor for Tom Hanks. The film's blend of American history with an everyman's story, using groundbreaking visual effects to insert its protagonist into real historical footage, made it a cultural touchstone still discussed decades later.
This cell captures the meeting point of fiction and history, pairing Forrest Gump with President Lyndon B. Johnson. It represents one of the film's signature sequences, where the seamless integration of Hanks into archival presidential footage demonstrated the era's most sophisticated compositing work. Collectors seek these frames precisely because they mark that technical achievement, the moment where an ordinary man's journey intersects with real American leadership. For memorabilia collectors, this pairing embodies the film's core conceit: history reimagined through one unassuming witness.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing or deformation.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with a dual-stripe or single variable-area format; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are not clearly distinguishable at this resolution, though the track area appears dense.
Edge print
Edge print reads, mirrored as captured: 'EASTMAN 25 111' — manufacturer stock identification and key number sequence.
Base & colour
Base appears warm cream-yellow, typical of acetate safety stock; the silver dye image reads as a normal black-and-white positive with no visible colour shift or fading.
Projection history
No prominent scratches, splice marks or cue dots are visible on these three frames.
Picture
Positive black-and-white image; frames run consecutively as a single continuous shot; subject matter and period-appropriate staging are consistent with a 1990s theatrical release print of Forrest Gump (1994).
Era check
Eastman-branded acetate safety stock with a variable-area optical soundtrack is consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print, matching the 1994 production date of the 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 000064038
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
