The 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival, presented by Associated Bank, came to an end last Thursday, and oh what a 15 days it was.

Earlier today, Milwaukee Film announced attendance numbers, winners of the 2025 Jury Awards and Allan H. (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Award Winners.

The organization also announced the date of next year's Film Fest: April 16-30, 2026.

“This year’s Milwaukee Film Festival was two weeks of cinematic bliss. 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," says Susan Kerns, Executive Director of Milwaukee Film.

Milwaukee Film Fest by the numbers

• Total attendance was 32,004 at 265 public screenings. 
• 209 Films: 97 feature films, including 49 documentary features and 48 fiction features, and 112 short films.
• 80 Filmmaker & Industry Guests + countless local filmmakers
• 45 percent of feature films were directed by women or nonbinary filmmakers. 
• $150,550 was raised through the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival REEL Impact Drive, with the campaign being initially kicked off with a generous $10,000 donation from Susan and Robert Mikulay. Additionally, Jim and Santha Kerns, parents of Kerns, put forward a $3,000 match on the final day of the Festival, which was met by supporters.

2025 Abele Catalyst Award

The Abele Catalyst Award is presented annually by Milwaukee Film to a person or entity who has been catalytic to the organization. This year, the award was presented posthumously to Carmen and Bill Haberman on Opening Night of the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival.

2025 Jury Award Winners

Luminaries Jury Award - Middletown (dirs. Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine)
Special Mention: Pavements (dir. Alex Ross Perry)

Luminaries Jury: Lela Meadow-Conner, Founder and CEO, mamafilm; Board President, Art House Convergence; Jourdain Searles, Writer and Critic; Amanda Keeler, Professor, Marquette University

Emerging Fiction Jury Award - Outerlands (dir. Elena Oxman)
Special Mentions: Color Book (dir. David Fortune), DJ Ahmet (dir. Georgi Unkovski)

Emerging Fiction Jury: Rubin Whitmore, Filmmaker and Educator, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee; Marian Masone, Curatorial Consultant; Allason Leitz, Principal, Third Industry Strategies

Emerging Documentary Jury Award - Remaining Native (dir. Paige Bethmann)
Special Mentions: Life After (dir. Reid Davenport), A Mother Apart (dir. Laurie Townshend)
Emerging Documentary Jury: Cassidy Dimon, Executive Director, Filmmakers with Disabilities (FWD-Doc); Cecilia R. Mejia, Impact Producer, VP of External Affairs for American Documentary | POV; Dinesh Sabu, Documentary Filmmaker and Educator, Marquette University

Cream City Cinema Jury Award - Zastava Brothers (dir. Pep Stojanovic), What Happened to Dorothy Bell? (dir. Danny Villanueva Jr.) and CYCLE (dirs. Laura Dyan Kezman, William Howell)
Special Mentions: Mandatory Bathroom Break (dir. Alyssa Sue Borkowski), One Minute Remaining (dir. Colin Sytsma), MINE! (dir. Lou Morton)

Cream City Cinema Jury: Andrew Carlin, Co-Head of Theatrical Distribution, Variance Films; Alece Oxendine, Executive Director, Film Durham; Annalisa Shoemaker, founder and CEO, Suncatcher Productions

Shorts Jury Award -  It Shouldn’t Rain Tomorrow (dir. Maria Trigo Teixeira)
Special Mention for Directing - Juan Vicente Manrique, Looking for a Donkey
Special Mention for Cinematography - Pablo García Gallego, Ripe!
Special Mention for Acting - Bonnie Hellman, Susana

Shorts Jury: Mike Plante, Filmmaker and Programmer; Yinan Wang, Filmmaker and Educator, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee; Amanda Salazar, Curator and Programmer, Director of Programming, Vidiots

Kids’ Choice Jury Award - The Carp and the Child (dirs. Morgane Simon and Arnaud Demuynck)
Special Mentions:  Most Inspirational - Skate in the City (dir. Lies van der Auwera)
Best Representation - Unibrow (dir. Nedda Sharshar)
Best Mixed Media Animation - Hello Summer (dir. Martin Smatana, Veronika Zacharová)
Best Message - Dynasty and Destiny (dir. Travis Lee Ratcliff)

The Kids’ Choice Jury Award is presented by a jury of 6 local youth ranging from ages nine to 12.

2025 Audience Award Winner

Best Feature - The Librarians (dir. Kim A Snyder)
Best Short - Jane Austen’s Period Drama (dirs. Julia Aks and Steve Pinder)

Last year, Milwaukee Film launched the first-ever Dialogues Documentary Festival, which is four days dedicated solely to starting conversations utilizing the power of documentary. The second Dialogues Documentary Festival will take place Sept. 18-21.