[6] Giovanni is a director, who dreams to make a film adaptation from John Cheever's "The Swimmer" with a soundtrack made of many Italian pop songs.

Tension culminates during a visit Giovanni pays to the set of the film Paola is working on, where he openly criticises the director, the plot and the final scene they are shooting.

Il sol dell'avvenire was co-written by Nanni Moretti with collaborators Francesca Marciano, Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santella.

[12] The film was theatrically released in Italy by 01 Distribution on 20 April 2023, before its Cannes screening, which, although considered a rare privilege, is permitted by the festival's regulations.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Moretti's 8½, A Brighter Tomorrow vibrantly presents a myriad of rose-tinted ideas celebrating the love of cinema that dip too far into nostalgia and self-indulgence.

[19] Reviewing the film following its Cannes premiere, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it "bafflingly awful: muddled, mediocre and metatextual – a complete waste of time, at once strident and listless.