Milwaukee Film November Programming Features Holiday Films, Found Footage Fest, and Wild & Scenic Film Festival: Water Tales

This November, Milwaukee Film brings a vast array of programming to the historic Oriental Theatre, from the Wild & Scenic Film Festival: Water Tales shorts program co-presented by Milwaukee Riverkeeper, to an Epic Weekend of screenings featuring S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Epic and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megadoc + Megadoc – Double Feature, plus an encore of the MFF23 Cream City Cinema favorite Love & Irony with a Q&A. Later in the month, the Oriental Theatre will welcome Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher for the 2025 edition of their live comedy show with VHS tapes, Found Footage Fest: Porcelain VHS Treasures. Finally, November kicks off Milwaukee Film’s second annual Season’s Screenings, a lineup of holiday films that showcases timeless classics and modern favorites, starting November 21st, 2025 and running through New Year’s Day. 

Milwaukee Film’s Artistic Director Cara Ogburn effused, “This holiday season, immerse yourself in a cinematic wonderland with Season’s Screenings!” She continued, “From more traditional, heartwarming classics like White Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life, to irreverent late night selections like Krampus and Christmas Evil, to romances like When Harry Met Sally, and family favorites like Beethoven and the new 4K restoration of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas—there’s emotions and holiday cheer aplenty for whatever your soul may need.”

The 2025 Season’s Screenings series also features two extra special events: the 2025 “Northwoods Christmas” presentation of the Wisconsin-made cult-classic Hundreds of Beavers on 35mm film, featuring a brand new prefeaturette, plus the return of Cinebuds Live, where Radio Milwaukee’s Dori Zori and Milwaukee Film’s Kristopher Pollard record a live podcast episode directly following a screening of Scrooged. 

See the full lineup for Milwaukee Film’s 2025 Season’s Screenings here.

On November 8th, Milwaukee Film and Milwaukee Riverkeeper will co-present the Wild & Scenic Film Festival: Water Tales, made possible by generous support from Dave and Judy Hecker. Featuring five insightful short films you won’t want to miss, this program will bear witness to inspiring stories of water heroes, uncommon volunteers, and indigenous activists, leaving you with a deeper understanding of our relationship to water. 

Stick around after the screening for a guided discussion on topics like dam removal, fish migration, and native stewardship practices led by a panel of local experts: Mark Denning of Sturgeon Protectors, Karen Murchie of Shedd Aquarium, Pierce Van Valkenberg of American Rivers, and Anggita Baruna of Sungai Watch. This is an opportunity to learn about the impact of these issues in Milwaukee, and how you can be the one to make a difference.

November also features what we are affectionately calling an “Epic Weekend” with screenings of RRR director S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Epic on the 14th, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megadoc + Megadoc – Double Feature on the 15th. 

Before RRR took the world by storm, master filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli redefined Indian Cinema with his two-part Baahubali saga. On November 14th at 7 PM, see the epic tale of royalty, revenge, kings, and wars which has been personally re-edited by the master himself from two films into a single unforgettable cinematic experience, with fully remastered picture and sound (and a few new surprises); audiences can experience the euphoria the way it was intended: on the big screen. When a lost prince is rescued and raised in exile, he grows up unaware of his past. Years later, he returns to uncover the truth about his father’s murder and his mother’s imprisonment, and must rise to reclaim his place as the rightful king.

On November 15th at 12:30 PM, catch the one-time-only double feature that begins with Mike Figgis’ engrossing behind-the-scenes documentary Megadoc, which follows the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. Then, after a brief intermission, see Coppola’s epic sci-fi drama again with fresh insights about the production or for the first time with even more curiosity about Coppola’s decades-long journey to make this ambitious project.

MFF23 audiences loved Love & Irony so much that Milwaukee Film is bringing it back for an encore screening! This special screening takes place on November 22nd at 3:30 PM, and will be followed by a Q&A with the team behind the film. Love & Irony follows an existential bike mechanic’s chance encounter with a beguiling photojournalist, which ironically leads him to question the real meaning of life, love, and being your true self.

At 7 PM on November 22nd, swing by the Oriental Theatre for a live comedy with VHS tapes, in the brand new 2025 edition of Found Footage Fest: Porcelain VHS Treasures! Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show with David Letterman) have over 14,000 VHS tapes in their cluttered office in Brooklyn and will take viewers on a guided tour of their latest/greatest finds in this brand new Volume 11 show for 2025. Highlights include a psychotic dollar store salesman, a video catalog of frightening porcelain dolls, two wonderfully homemade Bigfoot videos and a new age “miracle” treatment from the 80s called “Psychic Surgery.” Contains nudity, language, clowns.