The Milwaukee Film Festival reports online-heavy attendance for hybrid 2022 event
The hybrid 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival had nearly 100,000 movie viewings, according to festival operator Milwaukee Film — less than one-fifth of those at in-person screenings.
Overall, Milwaukee Film says, the film festival had 99,131 attendees, adding up those who went to in-person movies and those who watched movies through the festival's online portal (factoring in a multiplier to account for more than one viewer watching on one screen).
RELATED: 25 must-see movies at the 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival
“Considering that in January we nearly canceled the in-person component of our 2022 MFF at the height of Omicron, this year signaled the essential vitality of our ability to convene our community through cinema,” Milwaukee Film artistic director Cara Ogburn said in a statement from the nonprofit.
Milwaukee Film said in-person events at this year's festival, which ran from April 21 to May 5, had 18,734 attendees. All 285 movies and shorts programs were shown in one or more of the festival's three theaters — the Oriental Theatre, Avalon Theater and Times Cinema.
The virtual program covered 72 movies and all 18 shorts programs. Although there's been a lot of energy about people getting back into movie theaters, the festival's virtual program clearly had drawing power, with more than 79,000 film views.
For context — though it's not really comparable — the 2021 Milwaukee Film Festival, which was all-virtual and had more than 200 movies available, reported attendance of movies and related events at 41,999.
The last fully in-person Milwaukee Film Festival, in 2019, had a record 87,618 attendees.
On Tuesday, Milwaukee Film also announced the dates for the 2023 film festival: April 20 to May 4.
Milwaukee Film also announced the winners of this year's Allan H. (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Awards. "Navalny," the documentary about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, won for best feature, while "The Warrior Princess," about Milwaukee amateur boxing champion Violet "The Warrior Princess" Lopez, collected the award for best short.
Other awards given out at the 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival included:
"Petite Maman," Luminaries Jury Award ($5,000).
"Beyond the Infinite 2 Minutes," Emerging Fiction Jury Award ($5,000).
"North by Current," Emerging Documentary Jury Award ($5,000).
"The Waiting Room," Cream City Cinema Jury Award ($5,000).
"Flowers Forever: Visibility for Existence," Cream City Cinema Jury Award ($5,000).
"A Life on the Farm," Cream City Cinema Jury Award ($2,500).
Several of the award winners are showing at the Oriental this week as part of Milwaukee Film's Best of Fest series. "Petite Maman" is showing with multiple showings daily through at least May 19; "Beyond the Infinite 2 Minutes" is screening at 7 p.m. May 14 and 9:30 p.m. May 19; "A Life on the Farm" is showing at 7 p.m. May 13, 4 p.m. May 14 and 1 p.m. May 15; "North by Current" is at 4 p.m. May 13 and 1 p.m. May 14; and "Navalny" is screening at 6 p.m. May 16.
For information on more of this year's awards, go to mkefilm.org.
Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cforan12.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Film Festival reports online-heavy attendance for event
