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 sequel built to capitalize on the original's cultural momentum while pushing the franchise into bolder territory: time travel not just to the past but to an imagined future of 2015. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and reuniting Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, the film expanded the mythology with hoverboards, self-lacing shoes, and alternate timelines, cementing the trilogy's place in science fiction and popular imagination. It remains a touchstone for collectors of eighties and nineties studio filmmaking, prized for its ambition and its role in extending a beloved story.
This cell holds Marty McFly, the reluctant time traveler whose ordinary teenage identity anchors the extraordinary events around him. Fans seek out frames of Fox's character because he is the emotional throughline of the entire trilogy, the audience's stand-in as decades collide. A single-character strip like this one isolates that presence without supporting cast, offering a clean, personal fragment of the film's visual history, a keepsake for those who value the character over the spectacle surrounding him.
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 complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched holes appear clean and regularly shaped with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, with a visible waveform pattern consistent with a mono or stereo optical track.
Edge print
Partial numerals readable along the top edge appear to include '32' and '13'; full key number sequence is not fully legible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight cool-neutral tint; dye image shows warm colour rendering consistent with an intact colour print with no obvious fading or red shift.
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, and the scene content is consistent with the film on record.
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, colour positive print stock, and four-perforation 35mm format are all consistent with a theatrical release print from the late 1980s to early 1990s.
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 000064131
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
