This year’s festival included 283 films from 51 countries at five venues and saw continued growth, with 87 sold-out screenings.
Winning the 2016 Allan H. (Bud) and Suzanne L. Selig Audience Awards were feature film Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise and short film Joe’s Violin.
Executive Producer Raymond C. Lambert of Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, which played in the Black Lens Program, attended the festival. In the documentary focusing on her prolific accomplishments, Maya Angelou received the moving and personal portrait of her iconic work.
Joe’s Violin screened in the Shorter Is Better’s Shorts: Stranger Than Fiction program, and told the story of a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor who donates his violin of 70 years to a local instrument drive, changing the life of a 12-year-old minority schoolgirl from the Bronx, and unexpectedly his own.
Other 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival jury award winners included:
Abele Catalyst Award
Katie Heil
Black Lens Jury Award ($5,000 cash)
Can You Dig This (dir. Delila Vallot)
Brico Forward Fund Winners ($50,000 cash, $96,000 in production services)
Give Me Liberty (dir. Kirill Mikhanovsky)
$20,000 cash, $10,000 from North American Camera, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
Plucked (dir. Joel Van Haren)
$15,000 cash, $10,000 from Independent, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
Black Box (dir. Jon Phillips)
$2,500 cash, $5,000 from North American Camera, $10,000 from RDI Stages, $5,000 from Electric Sun, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
Popper Baxton’s Sickly Stew (dir. John Roberts)
$2,500 cash, $10,000 from Electric Sun, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
Kaukauna & King: 50 Years Later (dir. Joanne Williams)
$2,500 cash, $5,000 from North American Camera, $5,000 from Electric Sun, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
Mothers for Justice (dir. Erik Ljung)
$2,500 cash, $6,000 from RDI Stages, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
Lunar Lords (dir. Kyle James)
$2,500 cash, $5,000 Independent, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
A Walk With My Brother (dir. Sitora Takanaev)
$2,500 cash, $5,000 from Independent, and legal consultation with Dan Kattman of Reinhart Boerner van Deuren, s.c.
Cream City Cinema College Filmmaker Award ($2,500 cash)
Sterile (dir. Matthew Klein)
Cream City Cinema Jury Award ($5,000 cash)
Twin Sister (Jimagua) (dir. Sitora Takanaev)
Documentary Jury Award ($5,000 cash)
NUTS! (dir. Penny Lane)
Herzfeld Competition Award ($10,000 cash)
The Fits (dir. Anna Rose Holmer)
Kids Choice Short Film Award ($1,000 cash)
MOOM (dirs. Robert Kondo, Daisuke ‘Dice’ Tsutsumi)
Milwaukee Music Video Award ($5,000 cash)
Webster X – Lately (dirs. Damien Blue, Cody LaPlant)
Shorter Is Better Award ($1,000 cash)
Bird Hearts (Fuglehjerter) (dir. Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel)
Pitch Us Your Doc! Contest Winner ($1,000 cash)
Malignant Practice (dir. Kristin Catalano)
