Which Italian director made the 1963 film 8½?

Federico Fellini made the 1963 film 8½. The Italian title, Otto e mezzo, refers to Fellini’s own count of his filmmaking career: six feature films, two co-directed or episodic works, and the new film as his “eight-and-a-half.”

The movie follows Guido Anselmi, an Italian film director suffering from creative block while trying to make an ambitious science-fiction film. Played by Marcello Mastroianni, Guido blends Fellini’s professional anxieties with memories, dreams, fantasies, and relationship troubles, making the film a landmark example of cinema about the filmmaking process itself.

8½ was co-written by Fellini with Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi. It was filmed in black and white and became one of the most influential films of the 1960s. It won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and black-and-white Costume Design. A common mix-up is confusing Fellini with Michelangelo Antonioni, another major Italian director of the period, but Antonioni did not direct 8½.