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 decade's defining blockbusters, pushing Robert Zemeckis's time travel saga into 2015, 1985A, and 1955. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd returned amid enormous anticipation, and the film's ambitious structure, doubling back through the original's events while introducing hoverboards and dystopian alternate timelines, cemented the trilogy's reputation for inventive plotting and technical achievement in optical effects and dual-role photography.
This cell centers on Marty McFly, the series' everyman hero whose adaptability across decades made him a defining figure of late eighties cinema, appearing here alongside Marty McFly Jr., the character's own son glimpsed in the film's future timeline. Fox's dual performance as both roles is a signature trick of Part II, and material pairing father and son speaks directly to that conceit. For collectors, frames holding both figures together capture the family legacy conceit at the heart of the sequel's most inventive stretch.
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 visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as two bilateral tracks.
Edge print
Edge print reads 'M3 28 68' (mirrored as seen); additional characters visible at the opposite edge reading approximately 'M3 28 68' in reverse.
Base & colour
Base shows a slight warm-neutral tint consistent with processed colour print stock; dye image appears stable with no visible 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, consistent with a release print of Back to the Future Part II.
Era check
The bilateral variable-area optical soundtrack, colour positive print stock, and edge coding format are all consistent with a 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 000064132
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
