2022 Milwaukee Film Festival lineup: Highlights include Javier Bardem, Alexei Navalny and a Pez smuggler
Chris Foran
Judging from the lineup, the Milwaukee Film Festival is just about back to normal for 2022.
The 14th annual Milwaukee Film Festival, which runs April 21 to May 5, sports a familiar mix of arthouse movies that haven't made it to Milwaukee screens; documentaries and foreign-language films generating buzz on the festival circuit; and Wisconsin-made feature films and shorts finally getting their due — all showing in theaters in in-person screenings for the first time since 2019.
But the 2022 festival isn't leaving the pandemic's ways behind altogether.
The in-person screenings, of 134 feature films and 18 short film programs at the Oriental Theatre, the Avalon Theater and the Times Cinema, will be accompanied by a virtual component: 69 of the feature films and all of the shorts programs also will be available online, via the nonprofit's digital portal (watch.mkefilm.org).
After two years of online-only festivals, fest-goers were interested in having the option. The virtual lineup covers more than half of the festival's offerings; it's limited because of screening restrictions by the movies' distributors, according to Cara Ogburn, artistic director of Milwaukee Film, which operates the Oriental and the film festival.
Film festival lineup released
The festival's complete schedule was posted on Milwaukee Film's website (mkefilm.org/mff) for the festival Thursday.
The film festival's opening-night movie checks a number of those boxes. "The Pez Outlaw," which was a hit at the SXSW Film Festival last month, tells the story of a Michigan man who went to Europe to acquire and smuggle out limited-edition Pez dispensers and found himself in the middle of international intrigue, collectibles mania and a war with the Pez company. It's showing at 6:30 p.m. April 21 at the Oriental; tickets, which include admission to the festival's opening-night party, are $25, $20 for Milwaukee Film members. (It's also showing at the Oriental April 22; it won't be available virtually.)
The festival's centerpiece film is "Navalny," a documentary portrait/thriller of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (showing April 29 at the Oriental); the closing-night film is "Petite Maman," the latest from French filmmaker Céline Sciamma ("Portrait of a Lady on Fire").
"Petite Maman" is one of several titles with star power that haven't made it to the big screen in Milwaukee. Others include:
- "Memoria," a by-all-accounts hypnotic drama by award-winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul starring Tilda Swinton;
- "The Good Boss," a Spanish satire with Javier Bardem as a factory owner obsessed with winning a local business award;
- And "You Are Not My Mother," a horror-thriller about a woman in Ireland who, after her mother reappears after mysteriously vanishing, suspects she's not who she seems to be.
Movies with Wisconsin accents
Movies at the film festival with a Wisconsin accent include:
"The Exchange. In White America. Kaukauna & King 50 Years Later," Milwaukee broadcasting veteran Joanne Williams' looks at a 1966 exchange program between Milwaukee's Rufus King High School and Kaukauna High School in the Fox Valley, and brings back the original participants today to reflect on the experience;
"Messwood," a documentary following a season in the life of the Shorewood-Messmer high school football program by Emily Kuester and Brad Lichtenstein;
And "The Milwaukee Project," which follows a diverse group of teenagers involved in an art and photography project over a number of years.
All three of those Wisconsin-flavored movies are also available in the Milwaukee Film Festival's virtual program. Unlike the screenings in theaters, the virtual showings in the festival are available only through an online-only pass. A pass covering all of the online offerings costs $200, $125 for Milwaukee Film members. There are no individual-movie tickets available for the virtual program.
Individual tickets for most in-person screenings are $14; $13 for seniors 60 and older, students and members of the military; $11 for Milwaukee Film members; and $8 for kids 12 and younger. Members can also buy an all-access pass, covering all in-person and virtual screenings, for $500.
Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cforan12.