It's time to roll film! The 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival is set to return this week, running from Thursday, April 24th until May 8th, with over 200 films from around the world hitting screens at the Oriental Theatre and the Downer Theatre. Now in its 17th year, the festival does an amazing job of curating a mixture of works from national, international and Milwaukee filmmakers, and this year features films across 13 categories, both short and feature-length.
Ahead of the festival, we've compiled everything you need to know before you go:
What's playing?
There are 224 films playing at this year's Milwaukee Film Festival, and most have 2-3 screenings, depending on the program. You can browse the full list of films here.
Venues and Tickets
Screenings will be held at the Oriental Theatre and the Downer Theatre. Box offices at both locations open one hour before the first screening and close 20 minutes after the last screening starts.
Some films sell out fast, so if you're looking at a particular screening, now might be the time to purchase a ticket online. You can purchase tickets on every movie listing page of the online festival guide. Every day at noon during the Festival, Milwaukee Film also updates their standby list. If a film is listed online as “Standby Only,” you can join the Standby line at the venue to buy an unclaimed seat.
Milwaukee Film Festival Passes are also available for $450 for members and $550 for the general public. Single film tickets, though, will generally run under $20.
Festival Highlights
The festival will open with a screening of "SALLY," detailing the life of astronaut Sally Ride, followed by a free opening night block party with discounted drinks at six bars along the festival's footprint between theaters. There are also filmmaker happy hours, panel discussions for creatives on films and the state of creative media in general, an industry roundtable and more. You can view the full slate of events beyond the film screenings here.
Programs and Initiatives
No matter what you're into, there's likely a film category for you. Milwaukee Film continues to promote diversity through its Black Lens and Cine Sin Fronteras programs, highlighting stories from Black and Latinx communities, as well as GenreQueer and Worldviews programming, offering an array of perspectives showcased through film.
If you're into music, Sound Vision is for you. If you want to support Milwaukee filmmakers, check out the Cream City Cinema programming. Rated K: for Kids programming features fun for the whole family (or just the big kids at heart.) Whatever floats your boat, there's likely a film for you at this year's Film Festival.
The festival also encourages community engagement with initiatives like the Reel Impact Drive, which supports future programming from Milwaukee Film at the Oriental and Downer Theatres.
What if I want the program?!
If you're a program collector (or just want to flip through the screenings) you can pick that up at the Oriental Theatre. If you want to read it online, you can download it here.
If you love Milwaukee and want to support local creatives, the Milwaukee Film Festival is certainly the place to do that. We'll see you at the movies!
