Retrospective: Federico Fellini

Few filmmakers are as associated with art-house cinema of the 1950s and 60s as the great Italian maestro Federico Fellini (1920–1993). The director’s distinct style is so influential that we have the word “Felliniesque” to describe an extravagant, slightly surreal situation.

Fellini began his career in film working on scripts for Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist classics Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisan (1946) but gradually developed his own cinematic language blending fantasy and theater alongside psychoanalysis and cultural critique. Among his many honors are four Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement (1993), the Palme d’Or at Cannes for La dolce vita, and the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for I vitelloni and La strada.

Retrospective: Federico Fellini is part of the Federico Fellini 100 tour, a series of centennial tributes to the director coordinated by Paola Ruggiero and Camilla Cormanni of Luce Cinecittà in Rome. The Wex had planned to join this worldwide observance in 2020, but the pandemic caused us—and most venues—to postpone. We’re excited to now join with peer institutions across the country in celebrating the director’s 102nd birthday, providing our audience the opportunity to revisit (or see for the first time) this incredible body of work on the big screen!