This year’s Milwaukee Film Festival will be contained to the five screens at two historic East Side movie houses – the Oriental Theatre and the Downer Theatre – marking a major shift for the 15-day extravaganza.
The move will create “a walkable footprint to make the festival experience richer for audiences and filmmakers alike,” according to Milwaukee Film Festival organizers in a news release. “Unparalleled for festivals as large as the Milwaukee Film Festival, this festival campus helps assure that no Q&As are missed for an early exit to make a showtime across town. Invigorating the surrounding neighborhoods, the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival will energize every street corner near the two theaters.”
The decision to limit showings to the Oriental and Downer theaters, both of which Milwaukee Film owns, will create a “full festival experience for cinemagoers” for the 17th annual edition of the festival, said Susan Kerns, who took over as Milwaukee Film’s executive director earlier this month.
“Audiences love the great films, talkbacks with filmmakers and panel discussions at the film festival, and these are the cornerstones of what we do,” Kerns said in a press release. “We know festival-goers also love talking to each other in the lobby about the films, continuing that conversation over a snack across the street between screenings and browsing nearby businesses along the way. We are inviting all of our neighboring businesses into the Milwaukee Film Festival party while making it easier for audiences to maximize their own experiences.”
In past years, the Milwaukee Film Festival has also included screenings at the Avalon Theater in Bay View and the Times Cinema in Washington Heights and, several years ago, the now-closed Fox Bay Theater in Whitefish Bay.
Milwaukee Film’s programming team also revealed a first set of selections for the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival, which will run April 24 through May 8.
The festival is expected to include about 200 short and feature-length documentary and fiction films from Milwaukee and around the world.
“This year’s lineup is shaping up to deliver the rich depth and breadth that our audiences have come to expect from the Milwaukee Film Festival,” Milwaukee Film Artistic Director Cara Ogburn said in a statement. “So many alumni filmmakers want to return to Milwaukee and, of course, we still have literal days’ worth of local films to consider. We are hard at work on selections and invitations, and we are excited to offer this sneak peak of a few notable features coming to us fresh from the festival circuit.”
Initial film selections are as follows:
- 40 Acres (R.T. Thorne, 2024, Canada)
“After thrilling audiences at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Thorne’s debut feature stars Danielle Deadwyler as a mother who risks mutiny protecting her family farm after a civil war.” - DJ Ahmet (Georgi M. Unkovski, 2025, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia)
“This coming-of-age charmer received the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision and Audience Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.” - Free Leonard Peltier (Jesse Shortbull and David France, 2025, United States)
“The timely documentary at the 2025 Sundance Film festival, premiering just days after Peltier’s sentence commutation, comes from two acclaimed Milwaukee Film Festival alums (Lakota Nation vs. United States; How to Survive a Plague).” - La Infiltrada (Undercover) (Arantxa Echevarría, 2024, Spain)
“This Spanish-language psychological thriller, which is based on a true story, won best film and best actress awards at the 2025 Goya Awards.” - Magic Farm (Amalia Ulman, 2025, United States and Argentina)
“This Sundance and Berlinale selection is a deliberately awkward and dark sci-fi comedy starring Chloë Sevigny and Alex Wolff.” - Pavements (Alex Ross Perry, 2024, United States)
“From prolific independent filmmaker Alex Ross Perry comes an experimental hybrid concert documentary about the iconic band, Pavement, which incorporates scripted scenes with archival footage of the band and a musical stage play consisting of songs from their discography.” - Separated (Errol Morris, 2024, United States)
“This urgent documentary about 2017 and 2018 family separation policies and practices at the border, based on the book by Jacob Soboroff, is essential viewing and demonstrates Morris’ quintessential style.”
Returning this year is Anvil Orchestra’s live in-theatre performance of musical accompaniment to a classic silent film. This year, Anvil Orchestra will be perform along with F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.
The full festival lineup is set to release on April 4. Advance ticket packages and passes for the festival are available at discounted pricing here.
