8 1/2
Film by Fellini [1963]Contribute your ideas for this topic
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Academy Awards
1963: Best Foreign-Language Film
8-1/2 from Italy, directed by Federico Fellini
Other Nominees
Knife in the Water from Poland, directed by Roman Polanski
The Red Lanterns from Greece, directed by Vassilis Georgiades
Los Tarantos from Spain, directed by Francisco Rovira Beleta
Twin Sisters of Kyoto from Japan, directed by Noboru Nakamura
Marcello Mastroianni in Federico Fellini’s 8-1/2 [Credit: Copyright © 1963 Embassy Pictures Corporation]The enigmatic title refers to the number of movies Fellini had directed including this one (seven solo features, plus three episodes of anthology films that he counted as one-half each). Marcello Mastroianni, Fellini’s on-screen alter ego, plays film director Guido Anselmi, who suffers from artistic inhibitions that prevent him from starting his next project. The visually stunning film weaves past, present, and future into a complex story that seems to exist mainly in Guido’s imagination. A compendium of Fellini’s favorite themes and symbols, 8-1/2 is a self-portrait in a medium unaccustomed to that purpose. For that reason it has been viewed as self-indulgent by some, but its inventive charm inspired, among others, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz (1979) and Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories (1980). 8-1/2 also won an Oscar for its costume designs (black and white) by Piero Gherardi and was nominated for Gherardi’s art direction/set decoration (black and white), as well as for its directing and writing.
8-1/2 (Otto e mezzo) from Italy, directed by Federico Fellini (AAN), original screenplay by Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, and Brunello Rondi (AAN).
discussed in biography
Federico Fellini: Major works
Regarded as a perfect blend of symbolism and realism, Otto e mezzo (1963; 8 1/2), is perhaps Fellini’s most widely praised film and earned the director his third Oscar for best foreign film. Entitled 8 1/2 for the number of films Fellini had made to that...