Action! Here's the full schedule for the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival

The best two weeks of any Cream City film fan's year is back – this time with astronaut icons, Jane Austen, rock star showcases, timely topics ... and lots of dead Pizza Huts?

CinemaCon took place last week in Las Vegas, revealing the major Hollywood studios biggest, most exciting blockbuster projects for the upcoming year and beyond. ANOTHER “Spider-Man.” ANOTHER “Tron.” ANOTHER “Smurfs.” ANOTHER “How to Train Your Dragon” (not including the other ANOTHER “How to Train Your Dragon” coming out in just a few months). The originality staggers the soul.

So yeah, that was the big movie news throughout last week – but for any film fans in Milwaukee, the TRULY exciting movie reveal dropped Friday as the Milwaukee Film Festival announced its full slate of selections for this year’s edition, hitting big screens at the Oriental and Downer Theaters starting April 24 through May 8. Yes – that’s just two and a half weeks away. Time to start stockpiling your sleep, family visits and excuses for workplace absences now!

Indeed, tell your boss, your family and your normal daily routines bon voyage because the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival may have fewer venues this year (I love you Avalon and Times; go see something there too, folks!) but it still has a ton of fascinating movies to easily fill 15 days of cinema addiction. We’ve got issue and advocacy docs. We’ve got animated features for great for kids and adults alike. We’ve got a dash of sports, a dab of rock docs, and a sprinkle of food and beverage features to sate your theatrical thirst and/or hunger. We’ve got compelling stories local, national, interstellar and beyond. We’ve got deeply felt down-to-earth human stories of everyday life; we’ve got horny gravediggers trying and failing to Frankenstein their lovers back to life. We’ve got secret mall apartments and old Pizza Huts – aka 14-year-old me’s dream life. We’ve got folks trying to grasp tax law and complex family dynamics – aka 34-year-old me’s current life. We got … well, we’ve got everything.

As I always say: If you can’t find at least a movie or two at the festival that interests you, you must not have any interests at all. And I return to you to regularly scheduled stare at a blank wall.

Below you’ll find the entire daily on-screen schedule for the film festival, spread across all five screens at the Oriental and Downer – plus a few particular spotlights scattered throughout to pique your interest. For a deeper dive into all the movies – and, most importantly, for tickets to see them – you’ll want to head over to Milwaukee Film’s website. And stay tuned – because I’ll have even more recommendations to help guide your Sharpie-and-highlighter big-screen battle-planning as the festival’s opening credits get closer to rolling.

But let’s not overwhelm you and break the Substack word limit for me. For now, here’s the whole lineup for the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival. Bookmark it – and then book it to the festival when it starts in t-minus NOT SOON ENOUGH! I’ll see you all at the movies … except for you, sunlight. I’ll see you again on May 9.

Day 1: Thursday, April 24

Oriental Theatre - Main House

6 p.m. – “Sally”

• The Milwaukee Film Festival generally likes to kick things off with a crowd-pleasing documentary, and 2025 will be no different – just with a little less gravity than most, as it heads to space with “Sally,” a doc about first U.S. woman in space Sally Ride and her inspirational life both amongst the stars and on the ground. It’s familiar territory for director Cristina Costantini, a Milwaukee native whose charming doc debut “Science Fair” similarly cracked open the festival back in 2018. And, of course, since it’s opening night, there’ll be a big shindig to celebrate afterwards – this time hosted right outside the Oriental, serving as a big East Side block party. Don’t party too hard though; we’ve got 14 more days of movie-watching to keep your energy up for.

Day 2: Friday, April 25

Oriental Theatre - Main House

3 p.m. – “This Is a Film About The Black Keys”
5:30 p.m. – “Speak.”
8:15 p.m. – “Green Blah! The History of Green Bay Punk Rock”
11:59 p.m. – “Shorts: The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Program Ever. Shit.”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1 p.m. – “Secret Mall Apartment”
1:30 p.m. – “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”
3:45 p.m. – “Glimmers”
4:15 p.m. – “Sally”
6:15 p.m. – “The Shrouds”

• Easily the most notable get of the film festival, “The Shrouds” is the latest from body horror genius David Cronenberg – though this entry seems more into the mind than the body, following a grieving man who tries to reconnect with his dead wife with bizarre technology. The movie debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival to mild results – but it’s Cronenberg in sci-fi mode, of course it didn’t play to the festival crowd or awards-hunting crowd. And now that others have gotten their eyes on it, it sounds like one of the more personal and heart-breaking entries in an incredible, idiosyncratic career.

7:15 p.m. – “Holy Cow”
9 p.m. – “Dead Lover”
10 p.m. – “AJ Goes to the Dog Park”
11:15 p.m. – “The Home”

Downer Theater

1 p.m. – “Middletown”
1:45 p.m. – “Heightened Scrutiny”
4 p.m. – “Stand Together As One”
4:45 p.m. – “Ka Whawhai Tonu (Struggle Without End)”
6:15 p.m. – “Teaches of Peaches”
7:30 p.m. – “Rent Free”
9 p.m. – “Magic Farm”
10 p.m. – “Cloud”

• If you’re can only head to the Milwaukee Film Festival for one day, what a sad and terrible situation you’ve found yourself in … but also make this Friday that one day. The second day’s entire slate is filled with standout picks – from the new Cronenberg, to rock docs about the Black Keys and Green Bay punk, to secret apartments built illegally in a mall, to top-tier issues and advocacy docs (“Middletown,” “Heightened Scrutiny,” “Ernest Cole”), to wacky Hooligante selections for cinematic sickos (“Dead Lover”). It’s a full day of on-screen excellence – and I mean a FULL day, because the quality options go deep into the night with the 10 p.m. Cinema Hooligante pick “Cloud,” featuring more techno terrors from Japanese great Kiyoshi Kurosawa (“Pulse,” “Cure”).

Day 3: Saturday, April 26

Oriental Theatre - Main House

11:30 a.m. – “Desperately Seeking Susan”

• There’s only two rep screenings in this year’s festival (R.I.P. “Stop Making Sense”) but Milwaukee Film went all out for both of them - starting with a special 40-year anniversary showing of the Madonna/Rosanna Arquette ‘80s favorite “Desperately Seeking Susan.” And as an added bonus, the screening also comes with a special book signing from groundbreaking director Susan Seidelman, who will be in attendance to sign books and participate in a post-film Q&A session (or a MOACTAQ&A – More Of A Comment Than A Question & Answer).

3 p.m. – “Middletown”
6:15 p.m. – “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House”
9 p.m. – “Baby”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

10 a.m. – “Kensuke’s Kingdom”
10:30 a.m. – “Kids Shorts: Size Large”
12:15 p.m. – “Loveable”
12:45 p.m. – “The Kids Are Not Alright”
3:30 p.m. – “Bar”
4 p.m. – “DJ Ahmet”
6:45 p.m. – “Two Women”
7:15 p.m. – “Linda Perry: Let It Die Here”
9:30 p.m. – “Sister Midnight”
10 p.m. – “Pavements”
11:59 p.m. – “What Happened to Dorothy Bell?”

Downer Theater

10 a.m. – “Boys Go To Jupiter”
10:30 a.m. – “Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts”
12:30 p.m. – “Kids Shorts: Size Small”
1:15 p.m. – “All Shall Be Well"
2:30 p.m. – “I’m Your Venus”
4 p.m. – “Marcella”

• Even if there isn’t a food-specific category anymore, the Milwaukee Film Festival always serves up some food porn – and this year’s dish is “Marcella,” a documentary about the famed Italian chef and author Marcella Hazan. Go to this one on an empty stomach at your own risk.

5 p.m. – “Undercover”
6:30 p.m. – “Color Book”
7:30 p.m. – “Harvest”
9:45 p.m. – “Vulcanizadora”
10:30 p.m. – “Dead Lover”

Day 4: Sunday, April 27

Oriental Theatre - Main House

10:30 a.m. – “Linda Perry: Let It Die Here”
2 p.m. – “Baby Doe”
5 p.m. – “Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse”
8 p.m. – “Gallagher”

• I have absolutely no interest in seeing Gallagher, the stand-up comedian turned punchline as his smash-happy shtick quickly got old. BUT I absolutely have interest in this documentary about the comedian’s dramatic rise and fall from funny guy fame. He’s also become quite bitter in his later years, so I’m very intrigued to see if the documentary digs into that not-such-a-laughing-matter side of the mallet-swinging performer’s life. If so, we might have a smash here.

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

10 a.m. – “Kids Shorts: Size Medium”
11 a.m. – “Jazzy”
12:15 p.m. – “Kensuke’s Kingdom”
1:30 p.m. – “This Is a Film About The Black Keys”
2:30 p.m. – “Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts”

• The decor. The kitschy interior. The odd exterior designs. There are few places more strangely imprinted on a generation’s brain than old Pizza Hut restaurants. And so … here’s a movie about them. No really. This documentary travels the country to find the stories of new businesses and people now occupying these old cathedrals to mid pizza – a fascinating and certainly unusual angle for a doc from the director of the similarly globe-trekking festival pick “We Don’t Deserve Dogs.”

4 p.m. – “Souleymane’s Story”
5:30 p.m. – “Heightened Scrutiny”
6:30 p.m. – “Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story”

Downer Theater

10 a.m. – “Boys Go To Jupiter”
10:30 a.m. – “Four Mothers”
12:15 p.m. – “Memories of a Burning Body”
1 p.m. – “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House”
3 p.m. – “Black Lens Shorts”
4 p.m. – “The Marching Band”
6 p.m. – “Free Leonard Peltier”
7 p.m. – “Bar”

• For fans of the film festival hit “Somm” – the most fun you can have watching other people drink – this year’s edition has another tasty cinematic tipple: “Bar,” borrowing from the “Somm” recipe book and following a menagerie of mixologists learning and competing in an intensive five-day cocktail course for the boozy best. And why yes, the Downer DOES serve alcoholic beverages so you won’t watch this probable crowd-pleaser parched.

Day 5: Monday, April 28

Oriental Theatre - Main House

6:30 p.m. – “Nosferatu”

• Hot off Robert Eggers’ remake and its stunning Christmas success at the box office (because when I think holiday hits, I think ancient mustachioed vampires) comes the return of the original still stunning, still startling silent classic “Nosferatu” – complete with musical accompaniment from festival favorites Anvil Orchestra. If you’ve never done one of these time-traveling silent movie experiences at the film festival, amend that this spring with this gorgeous German expressionist masterpiece – because unlike its title character, it does NOT suck.

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1 p.m. – “Color Book”
1:30 p.m. – “Peacock”
4:30 p.m. – “Fine Young Men”
5 p.m. – “I’m Your Venus”
7 p.m. – “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence”
7:30 p.m. – “Black Dog”

Downer Theater

1 p.m. – “Heightened Scrutiny”
1:45 p.m. – “Samia”
4 p.m. – “In Waves and War”
4:45 p.m. – “Secret Mall Apartment”

• Thanks to a members screening last month, the secret’s already out about the quirky charms of “Secret Mall Apartment,” a documentary about eight Rhode Islanders who discretely bunkered down inside a local mall for almost half a decade. If you missed that members screening (*sheepishly raises hand*), thankfully you have another chance to check out this exceptionally buzzy doc – produced by Jesse Eisenberg.

7:15 p.m. – “Waves”
8 p.m. – “One Minute Remaining”

Day 6: Tuesday, April 29

Oriental Theatre - Main House

3:30 p.m. – “Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse”
7 p.m. – “Shorts: Date Night”
9:30 p.m. – “Sister Midnight”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1 p.m. – “Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story”
2 p.m. – “Familiar Touch”

• “Familiar Touch” reads like a modest film festival selection – the low-key story of an elderly woman moving into assisted living and complicated emotions that come with such a change – but don’t be fooled. It’s a fairly major achievement, one that earned its newcomer director Sarah Friedland the “Someone To Watch Award” at this past year’s Independent Spirit Awards. If you’re looking for the next “Ghostlight” or “Good One” – seemingly small and modest picks that pack a big emotional punch – get familiar with “Familiar Touch.”

4 p.m. – “Holy Cow”
5 p.m. – “Glimmers”
6:30 p.m. – “The Dells”
8 p.m. – “Nikah”
9 p.m. – AJ Goes to the Dog Park”

Downer Theater

1 p.m. – “I’m Your Venus”
2 p.m. – “Fine Young Men”
3:30 p.m. – “Coexistence, My Ass!”
4:30 p.m. – “Life After”
6 p.m. – “Memory Lane”
7:15 p.m. – “Shorts: Let’s Get Animated”
8:30 p.m. – “All That Glitters”
9:30 p.m. – “Gallagher”

Day 7: Wednesday, April 30

Oriental Theatre - Main House

1 p.m. – “Holy Cow”
4 p.m. – SUPER SECRET MEMBERS-ONLY SCREENING
7 p.m. – SUPER SECRET MEMBERS-ONLY SCREENING

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

12 p.m. – “One to One: John and Yoko”

• While you’re waiting for Sam Mendes’s four (FOUR!) Beatles biopics to come out in April 2028, get your Fab Four fix with “One to One,” taking an intimate look into the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the midst of their One to One charity concert. The Beatles as a subject tend to bring out the big names behind the camera as well – this one being no different, directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (“One Day in September,” “Touching the Void,” “The Last King of Scotland,” “The Mauritanian”).

12:30 p.m. – “Black Lens Shorts”
3 p.m. – “Four Mothers”
3:30 p.m. – “Row of Life”
6 p.m. – “Secret Mall Apartment”
6:30 p.m. – “Teaches of Peaches”
8:45 p.m. – “Green Blah! The History of Green Bay Punk Rock”
9:30 p.m. – “All That Glitters”

Downer Theater

12 p.m. – “Speak.”
12:45 p.m. – “Shorts: Surprise, Surprise”
3 p.m. – “Young Hearts”
3:45 p.m. – “Separated”
5:30 p.m. – “Waves”
6:30 p.m. – “Loveable”
9 p.m. – “Gallagher”
9:45 p.m. – “Vulcanizadora”

Day 8: Thursday, May 1

Oriental Theatre - Main House

12:30 p.m. – “Peacock”
3 p.m. – “Shorts: Grab Bag 2025”
5:30 p.m. – “All That Glitters”
8:15 p.m. – “Magic Farm”

• If you’re hunting down the buzziest movies at the Milwaukee Film Festival this year, you almost assuredly want to have “Magic Farm” on your watchlist. The indie satire – about a Vice-like media team that winds up in the wrong country attempting to cover a musician and tries to make the desperate best of it with the locals – made its debut at Sundance this past winter to strong write-ups. (Maybe a little divisive – but at a film festival, that’s how you know it’s actually interesting.) Add in a starry cast including Chloe Sevigny, Alex Wolff and Simon Rex (it’s crazy how we live in a world where seeing the ex-MTV VJ in a movie is a sign of exciting quality), and you’ve got one of the hotter tickets during this two-week tornado.

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

12 p.m. – “Sally”
1:30 p.m. – “Memories of a Burning Body”
2:30 p.m. – “Death & Taxes”
4 p.m. – “Marcella”
6 p.m. – “Third Act”
6:45 p.m. – “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies”
8:45 p.m. – “The Ugly Stepsister”

Downer Theater

11:30 a.m. – “Color Book”
12:45 p.m. – “Shorts: Surprise, Surprise”
3 p.m. – “WTO/99”
3:45 p.m. – “Nikah”
6:15 p.m. – “Pavements”

• There are plenty of rock docs to be found at the film festival this year – I half-heartedly count at least eight in this year’s collection. But only one comes from indie favorite Alex Ross Perry (“Her Smell,” “Listen Up Philip”), bends its subgenre into knots, features a shockingly deep bench of notable names including film podcast favorite Griffin Newman and pretty much guarantees to be unlike any other musician movie profile you’ve seen. For those expecting a typical “VH1 Behind the Music”-style spotlight of the influential ‘90s indie band, try something else – but for a playfully different take on the formulas (desperately needed in this era of tediously brand-managed streaming docs) hit play on “Pavements.”

7 p.m. – “Creede U.S.A.”
9:30 p.m. – “Shorts: Date Night”
10:15 p.m. – “Sister Midnight”

Day 9: Friday, May 2

Oriental Theatre - Main House

1 p.m. – “Woolly”
3:30 p.m. – “Brady Street: Portrait of a Neighborhood”
7 p.m. – “The Librarians”

• The phrase “all too relevant” really gets a workout when discussing the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival lineup – a phrase like “unprecedented times” that I’m really excited to stop saying sometime soon. Anyways, that unfortunate timeliness extends to this year’s centerpiece selection, focusing on a topic found all too often at the center of headshake-inducing news headlines: book banning at our local schools and libraries. This documentary from lauded filmmaker Kim A. Snyder (“Us Kids”) follows a number of librarians across the country doing anything but shhh-ing themselves as groups attempt to curtail freedom of speech and yank books of all kinds off their shelves. Brace yourself to feel inspired and incensed simultaneously!

10 p.m. – “What Happened to Dorothy Bell?”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

12 p.m. – “Jazzy”
12:30 p.m. – “Can I Get A Witness?”
3 p.m. – “Two Women”
4 p.m. – “This Is a Film About The Black Keys”
6 p.m. – “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore”
6:30 p.m. – “The Marching Band”
8:45 p.m. – “The Ugly Stepsister”
9:30 p.m. – “Vulcanizadora”

Downer Theater

12 p.m. – “A Mother Apart”
12:45 p.m. – “Shorts: Let’s Get Animated”
2:30 p.m. – “Memory Lane”
3:15 p.m. – “Familiar Touch”
5:30 p.m. – “In Waves and War”
6:45 p.m. – “The Diamond King”

• Brewers game or film festival movie? Even before the festival’s move to spring, that question’s been one of the great dilemmas for any Milwaukee sports fan/cinephile’s lifetime. But this year, the answer is: Why not both! Indeed, with “The Diamond King,” you can get your baseball fix on the big screen as the doc tells the story of Dick Perez, the painter behind iconic baseball cards and official Hall of Fame art. If you’re a baseball fan, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers roster of 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival options. (For my non-sporto readers, that means it’s real good.)

8:45 p.m. – “AJ Goes to the Dog Park”
9:30 p.m. – “40 Acres”

Day 10: Saturday, May 3

Oriental Theatre - Main House

10 a.m. – “Kids Shorts: Size Small”
12:30 p.m. – “Samia”
3 p.m. – “25 Cats From Qatar”
6 p.m. – “One to One: John and Yoko”
9 p.m. – “The Home”
11:30 p.m. – “The Shrouds”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

10:30 a.m. – “The Librarians”
11 a.m. – “Front Row”
1:15 p.m. – “WTO/99”
1:45 p.m. – “Peacock”
4:15 p.m. – “Shorts: Grab Bag 2025”
4:45 p.m. – “Remaining Native”
6:30 p.m. – “Free Leonard Peltier”

• There’s no shortage of advocacy and issue docs at this year’s festival – but one of the stand-outs of the bunch has to be “Free Leonard Peltier,” taking a deep look into the controversial life and protest work of the freshly pardoned Native American rights activist. The timely subject matter alone would make this one of the showcase selections – but the doc also comes from an all-star crew of filmmakers as well, co-directed by Jesse Short Bull of the critically acclaimed “Lakota Nation vs. United States” and David France of the Oscar-nominated “How to Survive a Plague” as well as fellow award nominees “Welcome to Chechnya” and “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.”

7:30 p.m. – “Boys Go To Jupiter”
10 p.m. – “Rent Free”
10:30 p.m. – “Teaches of Peaches”

Downer Theater

10:30 a.m. – “Third Act”
12:15 p.m. – “Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story”
1 p.m. – “Kids Shorts: Size Medium”
3:15 p.m. – “Row of Life”
4 p.m. – “Takin’ Care of Business”
6 p.m. – “Balomania”
7:15 p.m. – “Outerlands”
8:30 p.m. – “40 Acres”
10 p.m. – “Shorts: The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Program Ever. Shit.”
11:15 p.m. – “The Ugly Stepsister”

• As always, there’s gold in the Cinema Hooligante lineup – gory, disgusting, weird-ass, cackle-inducing gold, but gold indeed! And one of the most shining sicko-approved entries of the bunch is “The Ugly Stepsister,” a body horror take on Cinderella as a disregarded woman takes, uh, drastic measures to compete with her stepsister’s beauty. It looks like part “The Substance,” part fractured fairy tale and all effed up – which is all I need to hear!

Day 11: Sunday, May 4

Oriental Theatre - Main House

10:30 a.m. – “The Milwaukee Youth Show”
1:45 p.m. – “Cycle”
6 p.m. – “What Happened to Dorothy Bell?”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

10 a.m. – “Kids Shorts: Size Small”
11 a.m. – “Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction”
12 p.m. – “Death & Taxes”
1:15 p.m. – “Blur: To the End”
3 p.m. – “Jazzy”
4 p.m. – “Woolly”
5:30 p.m. – “Black Dog”
6:30 p.m. – “Baby”

Downer Theater

10 a.m. – “Kids Shorts: Size Large”
10:30 a.m. – “Row of Life”
12:30 p.m. – “Brady Street: Portrait of a Neighborhood”
1:15 p.m. – “Outerlands”
3:15 p.m. – “Harvest”
4:30 p.m. – “Separated”

• When he’s not shilling for Chipotle, Errol Morris: pretty good at his job! The documentary icon (“Gates of Heaven,” “The Thin Blue Line,” “The Fog of War”) has been pleasantly back in action these past few years, between the John La Carre profile “The Pigeon Tunnel,” “Chaos: The Manson Murders” on Netflix and this urgent documentary about the Trump administration’s family separation policy – one made even more urgent as immigrants’ rights, due process and basic humanity continue to be trampled.

6:30 p.m. – “A Mother Apart”
7:15 p.m. – “Shorts: Surprise, Surprise”

Day 12: Monday, May 5

Oriental Theatre - Main House

12 p.m. – “Shorts: Grab Bag 2025”
3 p.m. – “The Kids Are Not Alright”
6 p.m. – “The Milwaukee Show I”

• “The Milwaukee Show” is always one of the most joyful experiences of the film festival, watching people’s hard work hit the big screen and then getting to see many of the casts and crews celebrate their artistic accomplishment right in front of you. It’s not just a screening; it’s two hours of community. So check out the first collection on Day 12 – and don’t miss part two the following night as well. And if you choose to see something else these two nights at the Oriental, well, you’ll still probably hear the celebration through the theater walls.

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1 p.m. – “One Minute Remaining”
1:30 p.m. – “Creede U.S.A.”
3:30 p.m. – “Remaining Native”
4 p.m. – “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore”
6:30 p.m. – “Ka Whawhai Tonu (Struggle Without End)”
7 p.m. – “Baby Doe”

Downer Theater

1 p.m. – “Takin’ Care of Business”
1:45 p.m. – “Front Row”
3:30 p.m. – “Souleymane’s Story”
4:15 p.m. – “Shorts: Let’s Get Animated”
6:30 p.m. – “Cloud”
7:15 p.m. – “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”

• Raoul Peck (“Lumumba,” the James Baldwin doc “I Am Not Your Negro”) is quietly one of our best living filmmakers and cinematic documenters of history. So yes, I do highly recommend checking out his latest feature: “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” a doc about the South African photographer whose images helped tell the true story of apartheid with the world – with even more of his monumental work found less than a decade ago. Peck’s film won numerous prizes upon its very quiet release last year – including the award for best documentary at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival – and now it’s finally on Brew City big screens.

Day 13: Tuesday, May 6

Oriental Theatre - Main House

12:30 p.m. – “Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction”
3 p.m. – “Balomania”
6 p.m. – “The Milwaukee Show II”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1:30 p.m. – “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies”
2 p.m. – “One Minute Remaining”
4:30 p.m. – “Life After”
5 p.m. – “The Diamond King”
7:30 p.m. – “DJ Ahmet”
8 p.m. – “Blur: To the End”
10 p.m. – “Black Lens Shorts”

Downer Theater

12:45 p.m. – “Remaining Native”
3 p.m. – “The Dells”

• A Wisconsin summer staple takes the spotlight – and maybe some of the limelight – in this intriguing documentary pick, dropping in on the Dells during a classic busy summer to witness the unusual clash of cultures that takes place as immigrants and students working on temporary J-1 visas mesh with locals and vacationers in an American respite. Providing a local angle on some of our current national headlines, take a slide into “The Dells” at the Milwaukee Film Festival. (You see? Slide? Because it has so many waterparks! Ha ha, you’ve done it again, Mueller.)

3:45 p.m. – “Cycle”
5:15 p.m. – “Desert Angel”
6:45 p.m. – “Can I Get a Witness?”
8 p.m. – “Shorts: Date Night”
9:30 p.m. – “Dead Lover”

Day 14: Wednesday, May 7

Oriental Theatre - Main House

12:30 p.m. – “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”
3:30 p.m. – “Desert Angel”
6:15 p.m. – “Stand Together As One”
8:30 p.m. – “40 Acres”

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1 p.m. – “All Shall Be Well”
1:30 p.m. – “Woolly”
4 p.m. – “25 Cats From Qatar”

• You could one hell of a warm and cozy penultimate day of the Milwaukee Film Festival thanks to the Oriental Theatre, starting with “Woolly,” a sweet documentary about a couple heading to Norway to take over their family’s sheep farm. Coming after the film festival’s Honorary “Lamb Chop & Shari” Award for Most Precious Lamb-Based Entertainment, I see. And if somehow that isn’t cuddly cute enough for you, stick around at the Oriental for “25 Cats From Qatar,” which journeys to the far-off locale of … down the street at Sip & Purr, following the cat cafe’s owner as she attempts to transport more than two dozen meowmers from the overpopulated capital of Qatar to Wisconsin for adoption. Between the two, you could have a very snuggly day at the movie theater … unless you’re allergic to wool or cat dander.

4:30 p.m. – “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence”
7 p.m. – “Life After”
10 p.m. – “Shorts: The Best Damn F*#@ing Midnight Program Ever. Shit.”

Downer Theater

12 p.m. – “Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse”
12:45 p.m. – “Nikah”
3 p.m. – “Cycle”
3:45 p.m. – “Speak.”
6 p.m. – “Fine Young Men”
6:45 p.m. – “Young Hearts”
8:30 p.m. – “Brady Street: Portrait of a Neighborhood”
9:30 p.m. – “Rent Free”

Day 15: Thursday, May 8

Oriental Theatre - Main House

1:30 p.m. – “Front Row”
4:30 p.m. – “Two Women”
7:30 p.m. – “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life”

• My god, somehow the festival is already coming to close – and to bring things to a final bow, the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival’s closing night feature will deliver something rare to the big screen: a rom … com? What, that’s allowed? Combining romance and hilarity? Crazy. Yes, while Hollywood’s mostly given up on the genre for reasons of stupidity and hating money, the film festival has not, screening “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” about an aspiring author and Austen addict who gets to go to a special writers’ residency based on the literary icon – only to end up in a Austenian love triangle of her own. See this closing night with pride – or miss it and risk ending the festival feeling great prejudice.

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

12 p.m. – “Undercover”
12:30 p.m. – “One to One: John and Yoko”
3 p.m. – “Separated”
3:30 p.m. – “Free Leonard Peltier”
6 p.m. – “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies”
7 p.m. – “Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction”

Downer Theater

12 p.m. – “Third Act”
12:45 p.m. – “Familiar Touch”
3 p.m. – “A Mother Apart”
3:45 p.m. – “In Waves and War”
6 p.m. – “Magic Farm”
7 p.m. – “Coexistence, My Ass!”