The pen ceremony tradition occurs in which of these films?

In the 2001 movie "A Beautiful Mind", a biographical drama directed by Ron Howard, there is a scene in which faculty members (mathematics professors) ritualistically present their pens to John Nash (Russell Crowe), the film's star. The action is taken to symbolize that Nash, a Nobel Laureate, is accepted and recognized in the mathematics community for his accomplishments. Executives for the movie however note that this custom was completely fabricated by their Hollywood movie studio; no such custom is known to exist at any university within or outside of the US.

The pen ceremony tradition was made part of the film because it was an apt way that Nash could be honored and the film could be truly enhanced. By using pens, they represented the power of man's creativity and invention. People are asked to think of all the great contributions to humanity—novels, poems, scientific papers—that have been brought about by the use of a pen, a humble writing instrument.

Nash was honored in this instance by his peers and he joined the select company of those great mathematicians of the past who contributed so much to humanity's understanding of the world.

Regarding John Nash (John Forbes Nash Jr., June 1928 – May 2015), who received the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994, he was associated with Princeton for nearly 70 years and was a legendary figure in the University's Department of Mathematics. He had held the position of senior research mathematician at Princeton since 1995.