Milwaukee Film Previews MFF25 Film Selections
MILWAUKEE – Tuesday, February 18th – Milwaukee Film’s programming team is eager to reveal a first set of selections for the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival, running April 24 through May 8. This year’s Festival is anticipated to include approximately 200 short and feature-length documentary and fiction films from around the world including from Milwaukee.
“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,” noted Cara Ogburn, Artistic Director. “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” she concluded.
Initial film selections announced:
40 Acres (dir. 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 (dir. 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 (dirs. Jesse Shortbull and David France, 2025, USA)
The most timely documentary at the 2025 Sundance Film festival, premiering just days after Peltier’s sentence commutation, comes from two acclaimed MFF alumni (Lakota Nation vs. United States; How to Survive a Plague).
La Infiltrada (Undercover) (dir. 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 (dir. Amalia Ulman, 2025, USA, Argentina)
This Sundance and Berlinale selection is a deliberately awkward and dark sci-fi comedy starring Chloë Sevigny and Alex Wolff.
Pavements (dir. Alex Ross Perry, 2024, USA)
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 (dir. Errol Morris, 2024, USA)
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.
Also returning this year is a fan-favorite Festival tradition: Anvil Orchestra’s annual live in-theatre performance of musical accompaniment to a classic silent film. This year, hot off the tails of Roger Eggers’ successful 2024 Nosferatu adaptation, Anvil Orchestra will be performing alongside a special screening of F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror from 1922.
“Planning for my first Festival back at Milwaukee Film has been nothing short of exhilarating,” enthused Susan Kerns, Milwaukee Film’s Executive Director. “As a massive fan of silent film, I’m thrilled we are showing F.W. Murnau’s German Expressionist masterpiece with accompaniment by The Anvil Orchestra. Seeing Max Schrek’s performance of Nosferatu on the big screen will remind you why this character has been haunting audiences for over 100 years,” she added.
This year’s 15-day Festival will take over all five screens at Milwaukee Film’s two historic theatres, the Oriental and the Downer, creating a walkable footprint to make the festival experience richer for audiences and filmmakers alike. 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 theatres.
“With this, the 17th edition of the Festival, we are activating the full festival experience for cinemagoers. Audiences love the great films, talkbacks with filmmakers, and panel discussions at the film festival, and these are the cornerstones of what we do. 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,” Kerns noted, concluding, “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.”
Advance ticket packages and passes for the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival are available now at discounted pricing at mkefilm.org/mff25. Additional confirmed films will be announced in March, with the full MFF25 lineup and schedule released online on April 4. Audiences are invited to join Milwaukee Film for Friends & Family Preview Night on Thursday, April 10, at the Oriental Theatre where printed program books will be available.
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