Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni), a famous Italian film director, is suffering from "director's block". Stalled on his new science fiction film that includes veiled autobiographical references, he has lost interest amid artistic and marital difficulties. As Guido struggles half-heartedly to work on the film, a series of flashbacks and dreams delve into his memories and fantasies; they are frequently interwoven with reality.
As declared by Fellini himself, the story is inspired by something that really happened to him. He had "lost” the film he was thinking on and wanted to abandon the project. Finally, he decided that this would have been the heart of the new film: “the story of a director who no longer knows what film he wanted to make".
Nominated for four Oscars, 8½ won awards for best foreign language film and best costume design in black-and-white (by Piero Gherardi).