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 rare sequel that expanded its predecessor's mythology rather than simply repeating it. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and reuniting the core cast, the film pushed Marty McFly and Doc Brown forward into 2015 and sideways into an alternate 1985, weaving a denser, more ambitious time travel puzzle. It arrived amid huge anticipation following the original's success and helped cement the trilogy's place in popular culture, its imagined future becoming a persistent touchstone for audiences long after the year it depicted came and went.
This cell holds Marty McFly, the character audiences follow through every timeline the trilogy invents, played by Michael J. Fox in a role that defined his career and remains central to the franchise's appeal. Collectors seek out Marty material because he is the constant thread binding the story's shifting decades together, the audience's anchor amid the film's temporal complications. A 35mm cell like this one preserves a single frame from that continuity, a physical fragment of the print itself, offered here without further embellishment beyond the name and format that accompany it.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm 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 each edge; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly cut with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area.
Edge print
Edge text reads reversed, consistent with emulsion-up presentation; legible characters appear to include '5 3 9 3 1' and partial Kodak-style key numbers, though full string is not fully resolved in this capture.
Base & colour
Base shows a slight blue-grey tint typical of safety acetate stock; the dye image appears warm with no obvious fading or colour 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 (1989).
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, acetate safety base tint, and Kodak-style edge coding are all 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 000064265
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
