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 as the immediate sequel to 1985's genre-defining hit, Back to the Future Part II pushed Robert Zemeckis's time-travel saga into bold new territory, sending its heroes forward to a neon-lit vision of 2015 and back through a corrupted version of 1955. Paired with Part III, it was filmed in a single ambitious production and remains a touchstone of late-eighties studio filmmaking, prized for its dense plotting, hoverboards, self-referential humor, and the way it folded the original film's events back on themselves.
This cell carries Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox's time-displaced everyman and the anchor of the entire trilogy. Collectors seek him out because he is the throughline of the story, the character audiences follow across decades and timelines, and any surviving frame of him from this particular installment represents a physical fragment of the franchise's most structurally complex chapter. As a 35mm cell, it preserves a literal piece of the release print, a small remnant of the actual film strip that once ran through projectors, connecting the owner directly to the picture as it was originally shown.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Back to the Future Part II (1989).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single-track analog stripe.
Edge print
Partial alphanumeric key numbers are visible along the edge; full text cannot be resolved at this resolution but sequences including what appears to be '2' and partial codes are discernible.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-neutral tint; dye image shows rich color saturation 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 color 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 single variable-area optical soundtrack, color positive stock, and perforation layout are all consistent with a 1989 theatrical release print predating digital soundtrack formats.
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 000064259
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
