2026 MKE INT Short Film Fest, Sept 11-12, Tickets Now On Sale!

And after operating this film festival for 30+ years I’m heading into semi-retirement. I’ve been through a lot health wise these past five years and it took a lot out of me, so there will not be a main festival next year, and we are also figuring our plans for Voices Heard. I still plan on doing events, but I need to rest in order to fully recover.

That said, there’s a festival to put on this September. On Friday September 11th we’ll have the 50th Anniversary of The Giant Spider Invasion, and we’ll honor that film’s director, Bill Rebane with this year’s Pace-setter Award. Plus, a whopping 34 films will screen on Saturday, September 12th, and all but one are premieres in Milwaukee! That’s right, Wisconsin and World premieres! Not only that, but 90% of the films are by local filmmakers! More premieres! More new filmmakers!  This is also a big year for us featuring new and emerging filmmakers who are joining our local filmmaking community, more younger filmmakers! More diversity! Plus nearly half of our new films are created by women. As always, we strive for female representation and inclusivity .

The MKE INT Short Film Fest also celebrates diversity with the eleventh year of “Voices Heard”, the only film event in Milwaukee spotlighting the work of local filmmakers of color. This wildly successful program returns this year to screen nine films from talented local, multicultural filmmakers on Saturday, September 12th at 1PM.

The films include previous multiple award winner, Ricardo Tenorio with Birthday Brian, From Section 48 to King Drive by returning filmmaker, Yinan Wang and the MKEOCA Collective, MIAD graduate, Caroline Ferrero has The Path, the team of Pryscilla Balladares, Selena McKnight, and Dana Watson deliver a documentary on a historical Milwaukee neighborhood with, Harambee, Milwaukee: The Movie, also, returning 2017 Best Film winner, Paulina Lule Bugembe-Kuwahara brings us their follow up project, Sherman Park, Madeline James McGuire’s newest film is the documentary, 馬小麥 (Little Madeline McGuire), and there’s Strong Friend by local favorite, Champ Robinson. We will have an in person panel right after Voices Heard called, Navigating Festivals moderated by Clarence “Sammy” Aumend, with Festival Director, Ross Bigley and members of the Voices Heard committee to help filmmakers understand how best to navigate today’s changing festival circuit.

After Voices Heard, there will be two Juried Blocks at 4:30 and 7PM, A large selection of different genres, drama, comedy, animation, documentaries and horror. Anticipated festival favorites include, veteran MS Now news producer turned documentary filmmaker, Eric Greenberg has his first film, Joy Ride, Extraordinary Rob by multiple festival award winner, Adam Szudrich, the striking, Do I Do by Ericka Boston, past multiple festival award winner, Hisonni Mustafa brings us his acclaimed Tyler Perry produced film, Gospel for Ghosts, plus our strong showing of local filmmakers features Tommy Simms returning with the Wisconsin Premiere of Never Fell In Love, another returning filmmaker is Kim Reese with May Day, also, a slew of new young local filmmakers are joining us for the first time including, Courtney Peterson with Witchy Women, Emma Kipp’s Human Error, Nathaniel C. Blumin’s The Sketch, Ian Anastas’s ConTempt Warning, and Hannah Brown’s Badge of The Dead are just an example of the new filmmakers in the area.

The Milwaukee Short Film Festival screens the largest lineup of local films than any other event in Milwaukee. And that is our goal, to give the largest representation of local talent that you’ll ever see in this city.

Judging this year’s festival are: accomplished filmmaker and writer, Timothy Lonsdale (Stranger Things), SAG actress and producer, Stormi Maya Cooke (That Damn Michael Che, Hustlers), award winning filmmaker, Danny Villanueva Jr, moving image and sound artist, Darren Alexander Cole, award winning filmmaker, Amber Rose McNeill, and award winning producer Maya Korn.

Each block is Juried, and our award presentation will include Voices Heard and will be handed out after the last film screens on September 12th in block 3.

Our tickets will go on sale at the end of the month.

Please enjoy these films showing at the festival this year:

Sherman Park
https://youtu.be/4_vTCtkUDF4

Extraordinary Rob
https://youtu.be/GHyZgpxY5RQ

9-Ball
https://youtu.be/z7VUGh9WnnQ

From Section 48 to King Drive
https://youtu.be/xXVgwCAm03s