With a little more than a month until the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival, the local organization pulled back the curtain on this year’s event — just a bit — by announcing the first 10 selections that will screen at the 18th annual festival April 16-30.
“Reaching our 18th year is an incredible milestone and a testament to the community that has supported the Milwaukee Film Festival since the beginning,” Milwaukee Film executive director Susan Kerns said in a release. “To honor the festival’s legacy while looking ahead to the great things to come, we’ve programmed over two weeks of tremendous cinematic events.”
The 2026 lineup includes world premieres, top international films, returning favorites and classic multimedia performances. In addition to those reveals, Milwaukee Film also shared the festival’s artwork designed by artists from Northern Ground, the digital studio that crafted the organization’s new branding and website.
Early bird passes and tickets for the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival are on sale now. For more information, visit the Milwaukee Film website.
Milwaukee Film Festival 2026: initial selections
Cookie Queens
Directed by Alysa Nahmias
2026 | USA
It’s cookie season, and pressure is rising as four tenacious Girl Scouts strive not only to be top-sellers in their troops, but to simply get through the thousands of dollars of cookies they've pledged to sell. Deadlines approaching, trophies on the line, TV appearances, questions of capitalism, no sugar-free cookies?! Doc queen Alysa Nahmias crafts a sweetly profound documentary navigating the $800 million business in which girlhood and ambition collide.
The General
With live orchestra accompaniment by Anvil Orchestra
Directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman
1926 | USA
A beloved MFF tradition, Anvil Orchestra returns to the Oriental Theatre to celebrate the 100th birthday of Buster Keaton's The General with live orchestra accompaniment. One of the most revered comedies of the silent era, this one-night-only musical screening is not to be missed.
I Want Your Sex
Directed by Gregg Araki
2026 | USA
When fresh-faced Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) lands a job with artist and provocateur Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), his fantasies come true as she taps him to become her sexual muse. Elliot finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder. Director Gregg Araki captured the voice of a generation in the ’90s and he's using it to beg Gen Z to change their puritanical ways.
Misan Harriman: Shoot the People
Directed by Andy Mundy-Castlei
2025 | USA
Featuring conversations with Rep. Ilhan Omar and Martin Luther King III, this urgent and compelling documentary follows Nigerian-born British image-maker Misan Harriman, best known for his powerful photographs of grassroots protests against climate change inaction, Gaza atrocities, George Floyd’s murder and more. However, even as his images provoke palpable reactions, as a self-described person of privilege, Harriman shares his doubts about his work’s effectiveness while reflecting on his life's work.
Obsession
Directed by Curry Barker
2026 | USA
After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price. It’s a film that Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting called "a simple, well-trodden concept transforms into a shocking and unsettling descent into abject horror in Barker’s capable hands, ensuring that his latest is destined to become horror’s latest, well, obsession."
Paper Trail
Part of “Shorts: Let’s Get Animated”
Directed by Don Herzfeldt
2026 | USA
One of many films in this year's "Let's Get Animated" program of short films, Don Hertzfeldt's latest animated work was awarded the Short Film Special Jury Award: Creative Vision at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Paper Trail allows viewers to witness a life through paper in this singular new creation from the two-time Oscar nominee.
Powwow People
Directed by Sky Hopinka
2025 | USA
Milwaukee Film Festival and UW-Milwaukee alum Sky Hopinka’s vérité-style documentary delivers a celebration of the overlapping arts of music, dance, food and dress packed into the cultural tradition of the powwow. Powwow People is grounded in the rhythms, relationships and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors and community members to participate in the making of this film.
Stop Making Sense
Directed by Jonathan Demme
1984 | USA
The return of a sacred MFF tradition! Make sure all aisles are clear for dancing as Jonathan Demme's essential concert documentary chronicling multiple nights of propulsive performance from the iconic Talking Heads (including magnetic frontman David Byrne and Milwaukee's own Jerry Harrison) is sure to burn down the house once again. A24's new restoration of this iconic film gains momentum like a runaway freight train, as the show (and Byrne's iconic suit) only gets bigger as it rolls along.
TheyDream
Directed by William David Caballero
2025 | USA
After 20 years of chronicling his Puerto Rican family's life and devastating losses, MFF alum William David Caballero seeks to remember and make sense of his family's complicated relationship. Expanding on the multiple shorts he has created about his family and through laughter and tears, Caballero and his mother craft animations that mirror scenes from their lives. Winner of the NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression at Sundance Film Festival, this autobiographical documentary is proof that every act of creation is also an act of letting go.
What Does That Nature Say to You
Directed by Hong Sang-Soo
2025 | South Korea
A young poet drops off his girlfriend at her parents' house and is amazed by its grandeur. He bumps into her father, meets her mother and sister, and they all end up spending a long day together; fueled by conversation, food, and libations. In his 33rd feature, multi-MFF alum Hong Sang-soo spins a bitterly comic fable on the trials of living simply and righteously in our world.
