What To See At the 2026 Wisconsin Film Festival

Anyone who needed evidence that Madison is a town for movie lovers should have been at Flix Brewhouse last week. Every seat in the theater’s spacious lobby was packed with film fans for the Wisconsin Film Festival’s First Look at the Fest. For $50, they got some free food and drink, but more importantly the chance to get a sneak preview of this year’s festival before anybody else.

Tickets went on sale last Saturday for the festival, which runs April 9 to 16 and is put on by the UW-Madison’s Communications Arts Department at multiple on-campus locations, Flix Brewhouse, the Barrymore Theatre, and the Bartell Theatre.

Several screenings have already sold out (although some rush tickets may be available at the door), but many more of the documentaries, indie films, restored classic movies and Wisconsin-made movies have plenty of tickets available.

Here are a few highlights of what’s at this year’s festival that still have advance tickets available.

Editor's note: The Wisconsin Film Festival is a City Cast Madison advertiser, but this article was independently produced.

“Steal This Story, Please!” (April 10, 6 p.m. Barrymore Theatre)

WORT-FM has featured Amy Goodman’s show “Democracy Now!” for many years. This documentary by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal (who previously made a documentary about Wisconsin’s Act 10 protests, “Citizen Koch”) looks at the long career of the trailblazing journalist as press freedoms in America are more fragile than ever before.

“Blank Check Presents Babe: Pig in the City” (April 11, 4:30 p.m., Barrymore Theatre)

“Blank Check” is one of my absolute favorite movie podcasts, with hosts David Sims and Griffin Newman taking deep dives into the oeuvre of directors like David Lynch, Peter Weir, and George Miller. The show’s researcher, JJ Bersch, lives in Madison, and is bringing the “Blank Check” team (minus Sims) to Madison for a live show to screen and talk about Miller’s porcine classic.

“Normal” (April 11, 8:15 p.m., Barrymore Theatre)

Did you know that “John Wick” was created by someone from Madison? Derek Kolstad graduated from Edgewood High, and the screenwriter returns home to present his latest action epic, starring Bob Odenkirk as a small-town Minnesota sheriff who finds out his seemingly sleepy village is full of killers.

“Wisconsin’s Own Horror & Sci-Fi” (April 11, 8:45 p.m. Music Hall)

Short film collections are a popular offering at the festival, and this crop of genre shorts from the Badger State should be a fun late-night show, including “Daniel Needs to Leave,” about the horror of trying to leave a party full of overly polite Midwesterners.

“25 Cats From Qatar” (April 12, 1:30 p.m., Barrymore Theatre)

Cat fanciers will love this documentary about a Milwaukee cat cafe owner who travels to Qatar to rescue as many felines as she can. The subject and filmmakers will be on hand afterwards for a Q&A, as well as an unnamed four-footed special guest.

“Night of the Living Dead” (April 12, 7:30 p.m., Chazen Museum of Art)

Seeing George A. Romero’s 1964 zombie classic on the big screen in a restored 35mm print would be enough of a treat. But this screening will also include a talk with novelist Daniel Kraus, who co-wrote Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” and wrote a book about his love of “Dead,” “Partially Devoured.”

“Winter Hymns” (April 14, 2 p.m., Flix Brewhouse)

The first screening of this tender drama by Wisconsin filmmaker Nathan Deming, starring American Players Theatre favorite Colleen Madden as a palliative care doctor, sold out quickly. So the festival added this second screening at the last minute, with a Q&A featuring Deming and Madden.

“Money From Home” (April 15, 5:30 p.m., Flix Brewhouse)

This Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis classic has been lovingly restored to its 3-D Technicolor glory by a team known as 3-D Film Archive, who will be on hand to talk about the painstaking process after the screening.