Friends of the WCFTR at the 2026 Wisconsin Film Festival!
This year’s Wisconsin Film Festival starts here in Madison next Thursday, April 9, kicking off a week full of fantastic film screenings that lasts until Thursday, April 16. The Festival program is filled with the best of brand new international and American independent cinema, as well as an always-excellent lineup of retrospective films from around the world. Many friends and supporters of the WCFTR have films in this year’s Festival, and we’re excited to share a few highlights here. If you’re in the Madison area, get out there and see some movies!
Veteran film and television director Ken Kwapis is known for The Office, Malcolm in the Middle, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and so much more, and the WCFTR is home to his archival collection, including scripts, storyboards, and correspondence, with more additions to come soon. Stay tuned for more news about his collection, and check out his feature documentary debut We Are the Shaggs at the Wisconsin Film Festival! With his signature attention to complicated characters and memorable stories, Kwapis uncovers the history of cult rock ‘n’ roll girl group the Shaggs. Kwapis will participate in Q&As following both screenings: Saturday, April 11, at 3:45 PM at the Chazen Museum of Art and Sunday, April 12, at 7:00 PM at Music Hall. And, when we aren’t watching movies that weekend at the Festival, we will be streaming the new comedy, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair. Kwapis directed all four episodes of this highly anticipated reboot, which premieres Friday, April 10 on Hulu!
Acclaimed documentary and avant-garde filmmaker Michelle Citron, whose papers are archived at the WCFTR (finding aid coming soon!), will also appear at this year’s Festival. Her groundbreaking 1978 feminist film Daughter Rite explores mother-daughter relationships through home movie footage and a verite-style narrative about two sisters returning home and discussing their complicated experiences with their mother. A presentation of Daughter Rite on 16mm will be preceded by Citron’s 2014 short documentary The Leftovers, which tells the story of a lesbian couple who lived in Chicago for decades. Citron will join the audience to discuss the films after the screening on Saturday, April 11, at 11:00 AM at the Chazen Museum of Art.
Stalwart WCFTR volunteer Vincent Mollica‘s new animated short Bob, Paul… Byrd and Pete Go to the Movies is part of the experimental program titled “Algorithmic Nudes and Other Experimental Shorts from Wisconsin’s Own,” showing Sunday, April 12, at 1:30 PM at the Chazen Museum of Art. Vincent and the other directors with films in this shorts film program will participate in a Q&A after the screening. And our pals from the Chicago Film Archives are presenting “Love It/Leave It: Tom Palazzolo’s America,” a block of Chicago legend Palazzolo’s experimental documentaries, on Sunday, April 12, at 11:00 AM at the Bartell Theatre. Don’t miss the chance to see some excellent films and support friends of the WCFTR at this year’s Festival!
WCFTR-Sponsored Films at the Wisconsin Film Festival
In addition to We Are the Shaggs and Daughter Rite, the WCFTR is sponsoring four other films at the 2026 Wisconsin Film Festival. From a restored 35mm screening of Stella Dallas (1925), with live piano by David Drazin and a conversation with MoMA’s Katie Trainor, to ’90s NYC vampire film Nadja, we’ve tried to support a little something for everyone. Here are the details:
- Saturday, April 11, 11:00 AM at the Bartell Theatre
- Monday, April 13, 12:45 PM at Flix Brewhouse, Cinema 8
- Sunday, April 12, 4:45 PM at UW Cinematheque
- Friday, April 10, 8:30 PM at UW Cinematheque
- Monday, April 13, 8:45 PM at Flix Brewhouse Cinema 2
- Sunday, April 12, 11:00 AM at UW Cinematheque
The WCFTR’s Wisconsin Film Festival Collection
The Wisconsin Film Festival has explored nearly every angle of film history through its creative programming, and the Festival has a fascinating history of its own. You can learn more about the origins and story of the Wisconsin Film Festival through the archival collection at the WCFTR, which is featured as an exhibit on our “Expanding Film Culture’s Field of Vision” website!
Programming and producing a large film festival requires immense coordination and effort, and the Wisconsin Film Festival collection reflects that. With planning documents, marketing materials, and more, the online exhibit shows how organizers have built an audience since the Festival started in 1999. It also contains a selection of the memorable trailers that play before screenings each year!
The exhibit is part of our “Expanding Film Culture’s Field of Vision” project, which was funded by a two-year grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The full collection is available for research at the WCFTR, and the finding aid will be online soon.