British Academy Film Awards — 2 wins, 1 nominationAcademy Awards — 1 nominationKids' Choice Award — 1 nominationSaturn Award — 1 nominationAll 2 wins · 4 nominations on record
British Academy Film Awards: Best Special Visual Effects
Scholarship
Named in the title of 1 peer-reviewed work
Examples
Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex · Library of Congress. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Back to the Future Part II arrived in 1989 from Universal Pictures, a rare sequel that expanded rather than repeated its predecessor's premise. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Bob Gale, it sent Marty McFly and Doc Brown forward to 2015, backward to an alternate 1985, and further back into 1955, layering timelines with an ambition few blockbusters attempted. It cemented the trilogy's reputation for inventive plotting and became a touchstone for how popular culture imagined the future, its hoverboards and predictions endlessly revisited as the real 2015 approached.
A card of this kind is a frame of pure text, the opening signature that announces the picture before a single scene plays. Collectors prize these pieces because they mark the threshold of the story, unattached to any performance or set, yet inseparable from the film's identity. For a franchise so bound up in dates and timestamps, an opening card carries extra weight, standing as the fixed point from which every temporal detour in the sequel departs.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Back to the Future Part II.
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no visible torn or deformed holes.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual-track variable-area format.
Edge print
Edge print reads 'EN 11' and 'EC 13' along the top edge; additional short alphanumeric codes are partially visible but not fully legible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears clear with a slight warm-amber tint consistent with processed color negative or print stock; dye image appears rich and not visibly faded.
Projection history
Two faint longitudinal lines are visible running the length of the strip along the lower portion, consistent with light handling or projection wear.
Picture
Positive color image; all three frames show the same title card logo, consistent with a title sequence from Back to the Future Part II.
Era check
The dual variable-area optical soundtrack, color print stock, and edge coding style are all consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print from the late 1980s.
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 000064104
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
