2023 Milwaukee Film Festival lineup: Movies with Judy Blume, Mary Tyler Moore, Bruce Lee, Madonna, Little Richard and more
The 2023 Milwaukee Film Festival has a lot of familiar names in unfamiliar movies.
The 15th annual film festival's lineup, released Thursday, features 283 movies — 135 feature films and 148 shorts — shown over 15 days, at the Oriental Theatre, Times Cinema and Avalon Theater April 20 through May 4.
That's the same theater footprint, and roughly the same amount of programming, as last year's festival. So far, festival goers are showing they're ready, Milwaukee Film communications director Bre Graziano said.
“We’re seeing an uptick of 20% of early ticket sales … ,” Graziano said before the release of the festival lineup. “The public is ready to roll and be in person this year.”
Among the newly announced titles are:
"The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution," a documentary drawing a connection between the Gamestop stock squeeze and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol;
A 50th anniversary screening of the Bruce Lee classic "Enter the Dragon";
"Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter," a documentary on the fabled Chicago chef and his legacy;
"Madonna: Truth or Dare," the 1991 documentary about the pop icon;
"Unicorn Wars," an animated movie described as "Bambi" meets "Apocalypse Now";
"1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture," an award-winning documentary diving into the fact that the word homosexual didn't appear in the Bible until 1946 — and how it got there.
Those are in addition to previously announced programming at the 2023 festival including:
An advance screening of the first screen adaptation of Judy Blume's beloved book "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret";
Pop-icon documentaries "Being Mary Tyler Moore," "Little Richard: I Am Everything" and "A Disturbance in the Force," about the making of "The Star Wars Holiday Special";
Kathleen Collins' 1982 movie "Losing Ground," one of the first feature films directed by an African American woman;
"R.M.N.," an acclaimed drama set in a Transylvanian village turned upside down;
A screening of the silent sci-fi classic "Metropolis," with live music accompaniment by the Anvil Orchestra.
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The full lineup is available at the film festival's website, mkefilm.org/mff.
After two years of virtual festivals (thanks, COVID-19) and last year's hybrid fest, the 2023 Milwaukee Film Festival is cutting back on its online offerings, both in volume and availability. Most of the festival's short films, but just 46 feature films (about 34% of the total), will be available virtually, and only during the final week of the event, from May 1-7. (As at last year's festival, the virtual program is available only to all-access passholders.)
“This is part of the industry trend," Milwaukee Film artistic director Cara Ogburn said. "This isn’t our decision to say, 'Oh, we don’t want to give people as much virtual.' But filmmakers and distributors and the people who own these films are pretty concerned about piracy; they recognize that … when we have to, we watch things at home, but the priority is really on that communal viewing experience.”
To help foster that communal experience, Milwaukee Film is holding what it's calling a Friends & Family Preview Night, offering highlights and trailers of some of this year's lineup, at the Oriental at 6:30 p.m. April 6. Admission is free.
Tickets go on sale online April 12 (April 10 for Milwaukee Film members) and at the Oriental box office starting April 14. For info, go to mkefilm.org/mff.
Tickets for most movies at the 2023 Milwaukee Film Festival are $15; $14 for seniors 60 and older, students and educators, and members of the military, $13 for Milwaukee Film members, and $8 for kids 12 and younger. Tickets for premium screenings, like "Metropolis," are $20; $18 for seniors 60 and older, students, educators and members of the military and $17 for Milwaukee Film members.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 2023 Milwaukee Film Festival: Judy Blume, Bruce Lee, Madonna, more
