The Fellini Foundation is a unique cultural institution in the Valais, with international activities. Supported by the City of Sion, the Bourgeoisie of Sion and the Collège des Creusets, the Foundation was established in 2001, replacing the Fellini Association (1999). The foundation has a substantial film collection, based on the initial collection of Gérald Morin, Fellini's former assistant. The collection has been regularly enriched by acquisitions and donations. The Fellini Foundation aims to enhance its collection through a programme of interdisciplinary exhibitions, publications, education and research. It has presented works by major contemporary artists, directors, photographers, writers and painters such as Maurice Béjart (choreographed the ballet Ciao Fellini which received its world premiere at the first major exhibition by the Fellini Foundation, Fellini, Maestro del cinema, 2003), David Lynch (in 2018 the cultural center of the Fellini Foundation in Sion hosted the world premiere of David Lynch’s lithographs in honor of Fellini with its exhibition David Lynch. Dreams. A Tribute to Fellini), Pedro Almodovar, Wim Wenders, Steve Schapiro, Michel Butor, Nicolas Bouvier, Luc Joly and Daniel Schweizer. The Fellini Foundation presented some forty exhibitions in the Espace culturel La Maison du diable, in Sion, a historical palace (1515) made available to the Foundation in 2011 by the Bourgeoisie of Sion, the owner.
Mainly devoted to Fellini's work (over 10,000 documents out of a total of 16,000), its collection includes over 5,000 press and production documents, 1,600 letters, filming objects, costumes, set elements, 800 photographs, 300 posters and several hundred original drawings. It is accompanied by a library of almost 500 works. Thanks to acquisitions and donations, in addition to the Fellinian heritage, the Collection also holds documents by Sergei Eisenstein, Charlie Chaplin, Andrei Tarkovski, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Henri Verneuil, Jean-Jacques Annaud and Claude Lelouch, to name but a few. Almost 6,000 of these documents have been digitalized.
During 24 years, the Fellini Foundation organized 116 exhibitions in Switzerland and worldwid, in museums, festivals, galleries and international institutions such as the United Nations, with 71 cultural partnerships and 52 publications independently, and in partnership with 19 publishers in 7 countries, including Éditions Gallimard in 2007 and 2009.
The Fellini Foundation's activities are orgnanized on four areas: 1. exhibitions and publications; 2. promoting artistic heritage at schools and universities; 3. dialogue between culture and technology; 4. the development of public-private partnerships and support.
The Fellini Foundation established two academic partnerships in 2015 in Singapore with NTU (Nanyang Technological University) and in 2022 with Hang Seng University in Hong Kong.
In 2020, the Fellini Foundation was awarded by the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic, and in 2024, in Rimini, the international Un Fellinano nel mondo prize in conjunction with the publishing house Diogenes & Collection Keel in Zurich.