The 21st annual Wisconsin Film Festival (“Festival”) ran from April 4 through April 11, 2019. The Wisconsin Film Festival is the largest university-produced film festival in the nation and is presented by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of the Arts in association with the Department of Communication Arts.
The 22nd annual Festival is tentatively scheduled for April 2-9, 2020 (dates subject to change).
The 2019 Festival by numbers:
Attendance: 29,280*
Films: 153
Screenings: 156*
Screens/Venues: 7/5 (Venues: Wisconsin Union Theater – Shannon Hall, Chazen Museum of Art, Cinematheque, Marquee at Union South and AMC Madison 6)
Volunteers: 178
*includes school field trips
Steep & Brew Audience Award Winners:
Steep & Brew has sponsored the Festival’s “Audience Awards” since 2005. Audience members rank films that they view at the Festival. Here are this year’s favorites:
Audience Favorite Narrative Feature
“Yomeddine” | Abu Bakr Shawky
Audience Favorite Documentary Feature (tie)
“Knock Down the House” | Rachel Lears
“Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” | Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Audience Favorite Restoration/Rediscovery
“Creature from the Black Lagoon” | Jack Arnold
Audience Favorite Shorts Program
“Stories We Tell: Wisconsin’s Own Shorts”
Audience Favorite Big Screens, Little Folks Selection
“Short and Sweet”
Golden Badger Award Winners:
The Golden Badger Awards, given for excellence in Wisconsin filmmaking, are chosen by a jury (in 2019, Edwanike Harbour, D.P. Carlson and Emir Cakaroz). The jury members review Wisconsin’s Own films that have been accepted into the Festival.
2019 Golden Badger Award Winners are:
“Elephant Path” | Todd McGrain
“Life on the Mississippi” | Bill Brown
“Played Out” | James Runde
Submissions for the 2020 Wisconsin’s Own selections will open in early September 2019 and close in December 2019. For more information on the film submission process, visit: go.wisc.edu/wisconsinsownsubmissions.