NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (November 2020): Criterion have transferred Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 to Blu-ray as part of their 14 films (15-Blu-rays) package of Essential Fellini that includes Toby Dammit 1968, Variety Lights 1950, The White Sheik 1952, I vitelloni 1953, La strada 1954, Il bidone 1955, Nights of Cabiria 1957, La dolce vita 1960, 8½ 1963, Juliet of the Spirits 1965, Fellini Satyricon 1969, Roma 1972, Amarcord 1973, And the Ship Sails On 1983 and Intervista 1987. This is the 8th Blu-ray in the Essential Fellini package.

"This restoration of 81/2 was completed in 2019 by Istituto Luce - Cinecitta and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale at the Istituto Luce - Cinecitta laboratories from the 35 mm original camera negative, which was made available by RTI-Mediaset and Infinity.
The original monaural soundtrack was restored and remastered in 2020 from various 35 mm optical positive and negative elements by the Criterion Collection. Soundtrack restoration by Michael W. Wiese."

NOTE: We have added 40 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

This new restoration benefits from a much stronger contrast ratio, with whites looking less blown out and blacks showing a deeper range, without losing any detail. In fact, there seems to be even sharper details on display now, and a more film-like grain. The film now takes up 33 GB on the dual-layered Blu-ray (as opposed to the old Criterion Blu-ray which came in around 25.8 GB). Even better is the higher bitrate for the duration of this 2-hour-19-minute film. "Federico Fellini's 8½" is widely-considered one of the finest cinematic achievements (even coming in at #10 on Sight and Sound's poll of the 100 greatest films of all time) and this new Blu-ray, nestled in among this Fellini collection, is a revelation. The new 2020 monaural soundtrack restoration is also a winner, though I lack the old Blu-ray (at the time of this writing) to do a direct, back-and-forth comparison. Highly recommend picking up this Blu-ray set, if not just for this fabulous upgrade in visuals, along with a beautiful transfer of my favorite Fellini, "I vitelloni". The extras are the same as the previous Criterion Blu-ray and DVD (see below)

Colin Zavitz

All extras appear to have been moved over from the December 2001 2-disc DVD (featurettes updated to HD) including the screen-specific audio essay featuring a disjointed commentary by film critic and Fellini friend Gideon Bachmann and NYU Professor of Film Antonio Monda, Terry Gilliam's introduction, the excellent 52-minute Fellini: A Director’s Notebook, the 48-minute documentary Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert about the maestro behind the music of Fellini's films, interviews with actress Sandra Milo, director Lina Wertmüller, whose career began on the set of 8 1/2, and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who discusses the revolutionary art of Gianni di Venanzo etc. The Criterion Blu-ray  exclusively adds their usual 'Timeline' feature and The Last Sequence, a new 52-minute documentary on Fellini’s lost alternate ending for 8 1/2 which fans should enjoy the dissection of the intended scene with Guido Anselmi (Mastroianni) in the dining car confronted by all the past women from his life. It gives input from some who were involved in the shoot like Cardinale and Anouk Aimee. It is quite interesting with real value for serious cinephiles. I suspect it would have been quite a different film experience with the scene included however with it being lost (burned) I suppose we will never know.

NOTE: The deluxe packaging, includes two lavishly illustrated books with hundreds of pages of content: notes on the films by scholar David Forgacs, essays by filmmakers Michael Almereyda, Kogonada, and Carol Morley; film critics Bilge Ebiri and Stephanie Zacharek; and novelist Colm Tóibín, and dozens of images spotlighting Don Young’s renowned collection of Fellini memorabilia collector’s set designed by Raphael Geroni, with new illustrations by Abigail Giuseppe.