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
Released by Universal Pictures in 1989, Back to the Future Part II arrived as the immediate sequel to one of the defining blockbusters of the decade. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and written with Bob Gale, it pushed the time travel premise forward and backward across decades, sending its heroes into a speculative 2015 and a darker alternate 1985. The film expanded the mythology established in the original, deepened its themes of consequence and causality, and remains a touchstone of late eighties studio filmmaking, prized for its ambition and its place in a beloved trilogy.
This cell centers on Marty McFly, the character audiences followed through the franchise's tangled timelines, played across the series by Michael J. Fox. Collectors seek pieces bearing his name for the character's central role in the story's stakes and humor. As a 35mm cell, it represents a physical fragment of the film's original photographic record, the kind of artifact once used in exhibition and promotion, now valued simply as a tangible trace of the picture itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour 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 each edge, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area.
Edge print
Partial alphanumeric key numbers visible along the upper edge; full text not legible at this capture resolution.
Base & colour
Base shows a slight blue-cyan tint typical of colour print stock; dye image appears warm and well-saturated with no visible fading.
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, consistent with a release print of Back to the Future Part II.
Era check
The variable-area optical track, colour print stock with cyan base tint, and perforation layout 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 000064125
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
