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
FILM NOTES
Back to the Future Part II arrived from Universal Pictures in 1989, a rare sequel that expanded rather than repeated its predecessor's premise. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale sent Marty McFly forward to 2015, sideways into an alternate 1985, and back again to 1955, layering timelines with an ambition few studio comedies attempted. The film's vision of a future thick with hoverboards and self-lacing shoes became a cultural touchstone in its own right, and its box office success cemented the trilogy's place among the defining franchises of its decade.
This cell centers on Marty and Griff, pairing the series' time-displaced hero with the Tannen family's future menace, Biff's descendant and grandson. Griff's presence signals the film's future-set sequences, where old rivalries resurface in new generations and new technology. Collectors seek out these two-character cells for the way they distill the saga's recurring theme, a McFly facing down a Tannen across different eras. As a 35mm frame drawn from actual theatrical printing stock, it offers a tangible link to the picture's original release, a physical artifact from a story built entirely around the manipulation of time.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour theatrical 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 both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean throughout the visible strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single bilateral variable-area track; Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks are also visible between the perforations on that same edge.
Edge print
Partial alphanumeric key numbers and codes are visible along the edge; full text is not legible at this size, though sequences resembling frame-count codes can be seen.
Base & colour
The base shows a slight warm-amber tint consistent with an acetate safety base; the dye image reads as a warm-toned colour positive with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light vertical scratches are visible running through the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the depicted interior setting with period-appropriate costuming is consistent with Back to the Future Part II (1989).
Era check
The combination of a bilateral variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, colour positive stock with warm acetate base, and key-number edge coding 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 000064219
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
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