(Berkeley, CA) December 17, 2019—The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), in association with Luce Cinecittà, Rome, will mount a major retrospective of films by Federico Fellini, the Italian director widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest filmmakers. Federico Fellini at 100 comprises more than forty programs, offering a comprehensive retrospective of Fellini’s films—the largest of its kind ever mounted in the Bay Area. The series will premiere in Berkeley as the first North American installment of a worldwide centennial tour, which kick-starts in London at BFI Southbank in January and is coordinated by the Italian agency for the promotion of Italian cinema worldwide, Luce Cinecittà.

BAMPFA’s five-month retrospective features many new digital restorations of Fellini’s films that have been prepared by Luce Cinecittà in partnership with Cineteca di Bologna and Cineteca Nazionale. The program includes a series of guest lectures by the distinguished film historians Russell Merritt and David Thomson as part of BAMPFA’s ongoing In Focus program. BAMPFA is also partnering with Cinema Italia San Francisco to present a daylong marathon of Fellini films at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre on Saturday, March 7.

A central figure in the international art cinema movement of the postwar era, Federico Fellini (1920–1993) became one of the most celebrated European directors of his generation, garnering global acclaim for masterworks like La strada, Amarcord, and 8½. Though he began his career in the Italian Neorealist movement as a protégé of Roberto Rossellini, Fellini soon transitioned from Neorealism to his own distinctive style, employing dreamlike imagery and fantastical scenarios to explore themes of memory, desire, and artistic expression. In a career that spanned nearly five decades, Fellini was lauded with countless international awards, including a Palme d’Or at Cannes for La dolce vita, four Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film—the most ever awarded to a single director in that category—and an Academy Honorary Award, which he received in 1993 for his many contributions to cinema across his career.

Federico Fellini at 100 includes every film Fellini ever directed, from his Neorealist-inflected solo directorial debut Variety Lights to midcareer masterpieces like the Oscar-winning 8½ to phantasmagorical late works like Fellini Roma. The series encompasses rarely seen documentary and short films by Fellini, as well as three of his early collaborations with Rossellini—a canonical director in his own right who directed Fellini’s screenplays for Open City, Paisan, and The Flowers of St. Francis. In addition to hosting the screening program, BAMPFA will celebrate Fellini’s legacy with a Felliniesque gala at The Hibernia in San Francisco on Tuesday, March 10.

“It’s an honor for BAMPFA to host the North American launch of the Federico Fellini touring retrospective coordinated by Luce Cinecittà. It has been twenty-five years since that last major presentation of Fellini’s films in the Bay Area, so this series represents a very important chance to see Fellini’s films in full context,” said Susan Oxtoby, senior film curator at BAMPFA. “Fellini’s cinema is at once imaginative, fantastical, humorous, and self-reflective—a body of work that has been influential on many filmmakers and beloved by generations of filmgoers around the world. We are delighted to collaborate with our colleagues at Luce Cinecittà, with whom we’ve presented tributes to great Italian masters in the past. After years of research and careful restoration by the most respected Italian film archives, including Cineteca di Bologna and Cineteca Nazionale, the Fellini 100 tour offers audiences a unique experience. Here in the Bay Area, we are pleased to partner with Cinema Italia, who will celebrate Fellini on March 7 at the Castro Theatre. And, in grand style, this year we will connect BAMPFA’s gala fundraiser with its festive Felliniesque theme to our programmatic activities presented in association with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, and the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco.”

A full list of screenings in Federico Fellini at 100 follows below and is on BAMPFA’s website. Information about the In Focus program of guest lectures can be found here. Information about the Castro Theatre’s daylong Fellini homage on March 7 can be found at www.cinemaitaliasf.com.

All films are directed by Federico Fellini unless otherwise noted.

The White Sheik (1952)

Thursday, January 16, 7 PM

Wednesday, February 12, 3:10 PM – Lecture by Russell Merritt

La dolce vita (1960)

Saturday, January 18, 7 PM

Sunday, January 26, 3:30 PM

Saturday, May 16, 7 PM

Variety Lights (1950) – codirected with Alberto Lattuada

Sunday, January 19, 4:30 PM

Wednesday, February 5, 3:10 PM – Lecture by Russell Merritt

Amarcord (1973)

Thursday, January 23, 7 PM

Saturday, March 21, 7:30 PM

Wednesday, April 1, 3:10 PM – Lecture by David Thomson

Saturday, March 7, 6 PM – Screening at the Castro Theatre

I vitelloni (1953)

Saturday, January 25, 7:30 PM

Wednesday, February 19, 3:10 PM – Lecture by Russell Merritt

Saturday, March 7, 10 PM – Screening at the Castro Theatre

La strada (1954)

Saturday, February 1, 5:30 PM

Wednesday, February 26, 3:10 PM – Lecture by Russell Merritt

Saturday, March 7, 12:30 PM – Screening at the Castro Theatre

8½ (1963)

Thursday, February 6, 7 PM

Saturday, February 15, 5 PM

Sunday, March 1, 7 PM

Wednesday, March 18, 3:10 PM ­– Lecture by Russell Merritt

Open City (1945) – directed by Roberto Rossellini

Saturday, February 22, 5:30 PM

Wednesday, January 29, 3:10 PM – Lecture by Russell Merritt

Paisan (1946) – directed by Roberto Rossellini

Sunday, February 23, 2 PM

The Flowers of St. Francis (1949) – directed by Roberto Rossellini

Saturday, February 29, 5:30 PM

A Fellini Omnibus

Wednesday, March 4, 3:10 PM – Lecture by Russell Merritt

Friday, April 3, 6:30 PM

Fellini’s Roma (1972)

Friday, March 13, 7 PM

Fellini Satyricon (1969)

Sunday, March 22, 7 PM

The Clowns(1970)

Wednesday, March 25, 3:10 PM – Lecture by Russell Merritt

Sunday, April 5, 7 PM

Fellini’s Casanova (1976)

Friday, March 27, 7 PM

Il bidone (1955)

Friday, April 24, 7 PM

Orchestra Rehearsal (1979) – preceded by Fellini: A Director’s Notebook (1969)

Sunday, April 26, 4 PM

City of Women (1980)

Saturday, May 2, 7:30 PM

And the Ship Sails On (1983)

Wednesday, May 6, 7 PM

Nights of Cabiria (1956)

Thursday, May 7, 7 PM

Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Saturday, March 7, 3 PM – Screening at the Castro Theatre

Saturday, May 9, 7 PM

Ginger and Fred (1986)

Sunday, May 10, 4:30 PM

Intervista (1987)

Thursday, May 14, 7 PM

The Voice of the Moon (1990)

Sunday, May 17, 7 PM

About BAMPFA

An internationally recognized arts institution with deep roots in the Bay Area, the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is a forum for cultural experiences that transform individuals and advance the local, national, and global discourse on art and film. BAMPFA is UC Berkeley’s premier visual arts venue, presenting more than 450 film screenings, scores of public programs, and more than twenty exhibitions annually. With its vibrant and eclectic programming, BAMPFA inspires the imagination and ignites critical dialogue through art, film, and other forms of creative expression. 

The institution’s collection of more than 28,000 works of art dates from 3000 BCE to the present day and includes important holdings of Neolithic Chinese ceramics, Ming and Qing Dynasty Chinese painting, Old Master works on paper, Italian Baroque painting, early American painting, Abstract Expressionist painting, contemporary photography, and Conceptual art. BAMPFA’s collection also includes more than 17,500 films and videos, including the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan, impressive holdings of Soviet cinema, West Coast avant-garde film, and seminal video art, as well as hundreds of thousands of articles, reviews, posters, and other ephemera related to the history of film.