This year’s Milwaukee Film Festival reported attendance of 32,004 across all screenings and events.
Attendance for this year’s festival decreased slightly from last year’s total of 32,624, when the festival first returned to a fully in-person event after the COVID pandemic. The 2024 total represented a jump of 10% from the 2023 hybrid in-person and virtual festival’s attendance of 29,718. The festival’s record highest attendance was in 2019 when it drew 87,618 people.
Throughout the run of this year’s 15-day Milwaukee Film Festival, moviegoers viewed films at the five screens at the Oriental Theatre and the Downer Theatre. This marked a major shift for the festival, which had screened films at multiple theaters across the city in past years. Film Fest organizers deemed the centralized East Side footprint as an easier way for attendees to access movies. Under the new format, average attendance at each screening grew by 47% over 2024’s average.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Milwaukee Film also announced dates for the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival, which will be held April 16-30. A spokesperson told Milwaukee Magazine that the organization is still assessing options for next year and isn’t ready to make a formal announcement regarding venues for next year’s festival.
The organization also announced that the Dialogues Documentary Festival, a four-day documentary screening event, will return this year, Sept. 18-21.
“This year’s Milwaukee Film Festival was two weeks of cinematic bliss,” Milwaukee Film Executive Director Susan Kerns said in a statement. “There’s something magical about the Film Festival – the crowds, the historic theaters, the mystery of what you’ll see next, and the sense that, for two hours, strangers are becoming a community, united by stories on the big screen.”
Kerns took over as Milwaukee Film’s executive director in February following the retirement of Anne Reed.
“I have such immense gratitude that I get to be part of this and can help bring these experiences to the people of our city,” Kerns said.
The festival screened a total of 209 movies, including 97 feature films (49 documentary features and 48 fiction features) and 112 short films. About 45% of feature films were directed by women or nonbinary filmmakers. About 80 filmmakers and industry guests appeared in person.
Middletown, a documentary about 1990s high schoolers uncovering an environmental conspiracy in an upstate New York town, won the festival’s Luminaries Award. Special mention went to Pavements and director Alex Ross Perry.
The Emerging Documentary Jury Award went to Remaining Native and director Paige Bethmann, while the Emerging Fiction Jury Award was given to Outerlands, directed by Elena Oxman. In the emerging categories, special mentions went to documentaries Life After and A Mother Apart and fiction films Color Book and DJ Ahmet.
The Cream City Cinema Jury Awards, presented to local filmmakers, went to Zastava Brothers, a short film by Pep Stojanovic; What Happened to Dorothy Bell?, directed by Danny Villanueva Jr.; and Cycle, from directors Laura Dyan Kezman and William Howell. Each winner received a $5,000 cash award as well as $40,000 in in-kind production services.
The 2025 Allan H. “Bud” and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Awards, as voted on by attendees, were The Librarians (directed by Kim A. Snyder) in the Best Feature category and Jane Austen’s Period Drama (directed by Julia Aks and Steve Pinder) in the Best Short category.
The Kids’ Choice Jury Award, presented by a jury of six local children, ages 9-12, went to The Carp and the Child (directed by Morgane Simon and Arnaud Demuynck).
The Abele Catalyst Award, presented annually by Milwaukee Film to a person or entity who has been crucial to Milwaukee Film, was presented posthumously to Carmen and Bill Haberman.
Milwaukee Film also revealed that it raised $150,550 through the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival REEL Impact Drive.
