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 Robert Zemeckis production riding the wave of one of the decade's most beloved originals. Reuniting Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and the creative team behind the first film, the sequel pushed the trilogy into stranger territory, sending its hero forward into 2015 and sideways into an alternate 1985. It remains a touchstone of high-concept studio filmmaking, prized for its clockwork plotting and its willingness to complicate a beloved formula rather than simply repeat it.
This cell centers on Marty McFly, the character whose ordinary teenage identity and unlikely heroism anchor the entire trilogy. Collectors seek him out because he is the audience's constant, the one figure present across every timeline the story invents. A cell bearing only his name and nothing more invites the viewer to hold that continuity in mind, a single frame preserved from thousands that once ran together, a small physical fragment of a character built to bridge past, present, and future.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital 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; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly cut with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual-bilateral (two-track) pattern; a dense pixelated data block consistent with Dolby Digital is visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the opposite edge.
Edge print
Text reading 'EASTM' (remainder cut off) is visible along the top edge, appearing mirrored, consistent with emulsion-up orientation.
Base & colour
The base shows a neutral-to-slightly-warm tint; the dye image appears well-saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has been projected.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot and the setting is consistent with Back to the Future Part II.
Era check
The combination of a dual-bilateral optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, Eastman stock edge print, and colour positive base 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 000064222
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
