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 from Universal Pictures in 1989, the immediate sequel to one of the decade's defining blockbusters. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and built around Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, it pushed the franchise into time travel's stranger corners, from a dystopian 1985 to the imagined future of 2015. The film expanded the mythology of the series and remains a touchstone for its hoverboards, self-lacing shoes, and predictions that pop culture still measures against reality.
This cell pairs the series' two central figures in conflict, Biff Tannen and Marty McFly, a dynamic that anchors much of the trilogy's tension. Biff, played by Thomas F. Wilson, stands as one of cinema's most enduring antagonists, a bully whose schemes ripple across timelines. Marty, embodied by Fox, remains the everyman thrown into chaos not of his making. A frame naming both suggests a moment of direct confrontation between them, the kind of pairing collectors seek when tracing the story's central rivalry through celluloid.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of Back to the Future Part II (1989).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no visible torn or deformed holes.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area.
Edge print
Edge text reads 'FUJI' and 'FC13' on one edge; the opposite edge reads 'M3 28 69' (mirrored as printed).
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight blue-green tint consistent with a colour safety stock; dye image shows warm, saturated colour with no visible fading.
Projection history
No splices, cue marks, or prominent scratches are visible on these three frames.
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 (1989).
Era check
Fuji-branded colour safety stock with a variable-area optical track and no digital soundtrack encoding is 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 000064195
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
