Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and scriptwriter, known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of the 20th century. In his fifty-year career, he has managed to win five Academy Awards including the most Oscars in history for Best Foreign Language Film, securing him a place amongst the all-time greats.

Federico Fellini was born in Rimini on 20 January 1920, son of Ida Barbiani, of Roman origin, and Urbano, a travelling salesman, originally of Gambettola. Whilst still in high school, the future director started making a name for himself as a caricaturist: to promote films, the manager of the Fulgor cinema, hired him to draw portraits of the stars. From the beginning of 1938 he started collaborating with “Domenica del Corriere”, which published several of his cartoons, and with the weekly comic publication from Florence “420”. In January 1939 he moved to Rome to study law and joined the editorial staff of “Marc'Aurelio”, a widely-read satirical magazine, where he became popular through hundreds of pieces signed as Federico. He moved in variety circles, writing monologues for the comedian Aldo Fabrizi and collaborated with variety programs on the radio where he met a young actress, Giulietta Masina, whom he later married on 30 October 1943.

They had just one son, who died one month after he was born. He soon made a name for himself as a scriptwriter by contributing to the scripts of Fabrizi's films. He formed a partnership with the playwright Tullio Pinelli, with whom he continued to work throughout his life. Their partnership became highly in demand to work with various directors such as Pietro Germi and Alberto Lattuada. The latter wanted Fellini to co-direct Luci del varietà (1950), a self-produced enterprise that left both of them full of debts. Fellini's solo directorial debut, Lo sceicco bianco (1952), was also a failure, but success finally arrived with I vitelloni (1953), which won the Silver Lion in Venice and which also launched Alberto Sordi's career. This was followed by La strada (1954), with Giulietta which won an Oscar, the first of a series of films that assured Fellini's place amongst the great filmmakers. Some of the most famous films are Le notti di Cabiria (1957, another Oscar), La dolce vita (1960, Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), 8½ (1963, Oscar), Fellini Satyricon (69),  Fellini Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973, Oscar), Il Casanova (1976), Prova d'orchestra (1979), Ginger e Fred (1985), Intervista (1987, 40th Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Grand Prize at the Moscow Film Festival), La voce della luna (1990).

Fellini's career was peppered with homages and awards, including the Legion of Honour in 1984 and the Praemium Imperiale awarded by the imperial family of Japan in 1990. Fellini is one of the few directors that has won the most Oscars, five, the last of which a lifetime achievement award, in 1993, a few months before his death on 31 October, in Rome.