This month marks a cinephile celebration, as the Milwaukee Film Festival officially revealed its lineup of movies coming to a big screen near you running now through April 25. And as always, it's an impressive and exciting slate, one that'll have you dancing like Kevin Bacon in "Footloose" or David Byrne in "Stop Making Sense" – and not just because those are both found on the schedule.

Indeed, the 2024 Milwaukee Film Festival will host some significant cinematic returns, with the original "Footloose" kicking it once again on the big screen as well as the ultimate concert doc "Stop Making Sense" taking the stage once again after some time away from the fest. The Anvil Orchestra will also come back to Brew City for a special live score performance alongside the eye-popping silent film classic "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." And speaking of Hollywood's past, beloved figures like Gene Wilder and Lamb Chop will return to the spotlight as well with high-profile documentaries, the latter serving as the festival's opening night selection.

But the most outstanding return of all during the Milwaukee Film Festival? The Downer Theatre, which will awaken from its short hibernation and return to the festival fold for the first time since 2017, joining the Oriental Theatre, Avalon and Times Cinema in showing more than 300 films across two weeks of big screen bliss. 

While the 2024 Milwaukee Film Festival welcomes a lot of familiar faces to its lineup, there's plenty of new and excitingly fresh selections to find too. That includes recent Oscar nominees like "Io Capitano" and the closing night pick "Robot Dreams," dramatic docs ranging in topic from the serious to the silly and surreal, cheer-worthy sports-centric selections, shriek-inducing slashers and horror films courtesy of Cinema Hooligante, engaging indies gathering buzz on the festival circuit ("Riddle of Fire," "Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World"), rock doc profiles of Cyndi Lauper and Joan Baez, and the latest masterworks from directors Frederick Wiseman, Hirokazu Kore-eda ("Shoplifters") and Ryusuke Hamaguchi ("Drive My Car").

And those are just a few of the outstanding cinematic options you can find find at this year's fest – because as always with the Milwaukee Film Festival, no matter your interests, big or small, you can find something worth seeking out. Really into humanist vampires seeking a consenting suicidal persons, for instance? Weird and oddly specific ... but conveniently enough, this year's lineup features the Hooligante pick "Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person." You'd rather watch houseplants grow? Welp, the film festival has you covered with "Light Needs," a documentary about houseplants and their obsessive human roommates. Indeed, if there's somehow nothing that excites you in the film festival lineup, it's you. Hi. You're the problem. It's you. 

For full descriptions of all the film selections, the entire festival program book and – most important of all – how to snag yourself passes and tickets to this year's cinema-palooza, head over to Milwaukee Film's website. But to help you start mapping out your 15 days of film excellence, surviving and subsisting on nothing but movies, popcorn, more movies, Dots and maybe a few more movies, here's the full day-by-day schedule for the 2024 Milwaukee Film Festival happening right now. And we'll see you at the movies!

Day 12: Monday, April 22

Oriental Theatre - Main House

1:30 p.m. – "Black Girls"
4 p.m. – "Tokyo Cowboy"
7 p.m. – "Riddle of Fire"

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1 p.m. – "The World According to Allee Willis"
2 p.m. – "Monster"
3:30 p.m. – "Without Arrows"
5 p.m. – "Evil Does Not Exist"
6 p.m. – "Louder Than You Think"
8 p.m. – "Young. Wild. Free."
8:30 p.m. – "Shorts: Surprise, Surprise!"

Downer Theater

1:30 p.m. – "The Girls Are Alright"
2:15 p.m. – "Richland"
4 p.m. – "All the Colours of the World Are Between Black And White"
5 p.m. – "Seeking Mavis Beacon"
7 p.m. – "Every Little Thing"
8 p.m. – "Shorts: Out of This World"

Avalon

12:30 p.m. – "The Arc of Oblivion"
3:15 p.m. – "Tracing the Divide"
6 p.m. – "Corridor"
9 p.m. – "Chasing Chasing Amy"

Times Cinema

1 p.m. – "Songs From the Hole"
4 p.m. – "Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction"
6:15 p.m. – "All I've Got & Then Some"
8:30 p.m. – "Shorts: Date Night"

Day 13: Tuesday, April 23

Oriental Theatre - Main House

4 p.m. – "Io Capitano"
7 p.m. – "We Grown Now"
9:30 p.m. – "100 Yards"

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

1 p.m. – "All You Hear is Noise"
2 p.m. – "Shorts: Stories We Tell"
3:30 p.m. – "Slow"
4:30 p.m. – "The Arc of Oblivion"
6:15 p.m. – "Big Boys"
7:30 p.m. – "Joan Baez: I Am a Noise"
8:45 p.m. – "Sira"

Downer Theater

12:15 p.m. – "Close Your Eyes"
1 p.m. – "The Movie Teller"
4 p.m. – "Naked Ambition"
4:45 p.m. – "A Ravaging Wind"
6:15 p.m. – "Hajjan"
7:15 p.m. – "Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World"
9:15 p.m. – "The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed"

Avalon

1 p.m. – "Confessions of a Good Samaritan"
3:45 p.m. – "Totem"
6:15 p.m. – "How to Have Sex"
8:45 p.m. – "Concrete Utopia"

Times Cinema

12:30 p.m. – "Four Daughters"
3:15 p.m. – "In Ukraine"
5:45 p.m. – "Black Girls"
8:30 p.m. – "Light Needs"

Day 14: Wednesday, April 24

Oriental Theatre - Main House

2:30 p.m. – "Tracing the Divide"
6:30 p.m. – "Shorts: Date Night"
9:15 p.m. – "Late Night with the Devil"

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

12:30 p.m. – "All I've Got & Then Some"
1 p.m. – "GenreQueer Shorts"
3 p.m. – "Sujo"
3:45 p.m. – "Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry"
6 p.m. – "The Movie Teller"
7:15 p.m. – "Endless Calls for Fame"
8:45 p.m. – "Another Body"

Downer Theater

12:45 p.m. – "Bye Bye Tiberias"
1:30 p.m. – "Smoking Tigers"
3:15 p.m. – All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White"
4 p.m. – "Impossible Town"
6 p.m. – "Totem"
6:45 p.m. – "Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling"
8:30 p.m. – "Terrestrial Verses"
9:15 p.m. – "I'm Your Host"

Avalon

3:30 p.m. – "Out of the Picture"
6:30 p.m. – "Your Fat Friend"
9 p.m. – "Desire Lines"

Times Cinema

1 p.m. – "Banal & Adama"
3:30 p.m. – "Cat City"
6:30 p.m. – "Ashima"
9 p.m. – "Gasoline Rainbow"

Day 15: Thursday, April 25

Oriental Theatre - Main House

2 p.m. – "Chasing Chasing Amy"
4:30 p.m. – "Io Capitano"
7:30 p.m. – "Robot Dreams"

Oriental Theatre - Side Houses

12:30 p.m. – "Big Boys"
1 p.m. – "Who Can See Forever"
3 p.m. – "Swan Song"
4 p.m. – "Light Needs"
6 p.m. – "Ghostlight"
6:30 p.m. – "Four Daughters"

Downer Theater

1 p.m. – "Shorts: Surprise, Surprise!"
2:45 p.m. – "Breaking the News"
3:30 p.m. – "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt"
5:45 p.m. – "The Arc of Oblivion"
6:30 p.m. – "Naked Ambition"

Avalon

1 p.m. – "The Herricanes"
3:30 p.m. – "Your Fat Friend"
6 p.m. – "Let the Canary Sing"

Times Cinema

1 p.m. – "The Body Politic"
3:30 p.m. – "Black Girls"
6 p.m. – "Evil Does Not Exist"