UWM Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres

08/26/2026

05/20/2026

It was so exciting to see our outstanding graduating seniors and graduate students from the Department of Film, Video, Animation & New Genres cross the stage last Saturday night at the PSOA Graduation Convocation! Congratulations to all of our graduates! Let the deeply deserved celebration continue!

05/06/2026

POSSIBLY IN MILWAUKEE: UWM Graduate Films

Wednesday, May 13th at 8pm
The Oriental Theatre (2230 N Farwell Ave)
Free and open to the public

Please join us is celebrating recent films from the Cinematic Arts MFA Program. This program represents the culmination of years of rigorous creative exploration, critical discourse, and the careful cultivation of aesthetic practice. What emerges from this collective effort is nothing short of extraordinary.

The artists presenting works this year are Aidan Collins, Matt Feldman, Katte Lubega, Gabi Rudin, Harper Stone, and Will VanKoughnett.

(Stills presented in order by artist!)

02/24/2026

From the Archives: The Temptation to Exist
Tuesday 2/24/26 | The Union Cinema | 7pm | Free

This program features friends who make films together, practical advice, a confrontation with loss, a guy who thought everyone else was having fun without him, a stoic transcendence through and beyond worldly adversity, and more…

Works by Standish Lawder, George Kuchar, Barbara Hammer, Chick Strand, Alee Peoples and Scott Stark from our Cinema Arts Archive, programmed by .rudin

11/30/2025

Special Features Workshop (Film Festival Strategies & Campaigns)
Thursday, December 4 2025
6:30-8:30pCT
Mitchell Hall B91

Film festivals, no matter how small or large, can be such an important moment for an emerging artist. The feeling of watching your film on screen in a theatre amongst an audience, when the lights dim and the first few seconds begin, is like no other. But the road to festivals can feel like a mystical experience and one defined by luck or chance, often making the goal of screening feel out of reach. At Special Features, we’re interested in pulling you behind the curtain to make film festivals feel more attainable. From submission strategies to festival research to competitions, rejections, fees and waivers, we’re going to dive deep into how to navigate film festivals for emerging filmmakers.

This workshop also will examine film festival programming as a possible career model within the film industry for those interested in more curatorial roles and positions. Our guest, Nick Leffel, will lead us into a bit of his career journey and offer his expertise on how to get your film seen.

11/06/2025

Special Features Workshop (Art & Production Design for Short Films)
Thursday, November 13 2025
6:30-8:30pCT
Mitchell Hall B91

The heart and soul of many film productions lie within the Art & Production Design departments. From set design, to costuming to props, these departments allow for other worlds to be introduced, sustained, and transported in any film. As a key component within the pre-production process, it is essential that young filmmakers know how to approach art in their films. Join us at SPECIAL FEATURES to learn more about props & wardrobe budgets, sourcing & shopping, and process / mood boards. Local filmmakers and artists, Kara Mulrooney & Amanda Tollefson, will lead us in a workshop offering their expertise and backgrounds working on films with high concept art, commercial products, and indie film work. If you interested in art and production design departments, this Special Features is for you!

11/04/2025

TONIGHT! 8PM! FREE!

Experimental Tuesdays presents a special memorial screening for Ken Jacobs, Looking Forward to a World without Money.

Ken Jacobs, one of the true radicals of American cinema and a lion of experimental film, passed October 5th, a mere season since his beloved wife and collaborator Flo preceded him. They lived long, full, beautiful lives. In addition to his inimitable work in film, video, painting, performance and all range of moving images, Ken started and was at the center of the film program at SUNY-Binghamton and co-founded The Millennium Film Workshop.

Featuring works from our own Cinematic Arts Archive, more recent digitalia and radio cameos, this show is not to be missed. Please note that many of these works feature stroboscopic image sequences.

10/16/2025

Join us for TV Guide: Special Features Artist Talk | Featuring Letia Solomon | October 23rd, 2025, | 6:30p-8:30pCT | VIRTUAL

Special Features is an artist talk and workshop series that is meant to provide filmmakers and artists with practical and insightful advice and skills as they navigate a variety of film industries.

We are happy to welcome our first virtual guest, Director Letia Solomon!

Letia Solomon is an award-winning DGA director and producer and former Chemical engineer based in Los Angeles. She made her television directorial debut on Season 7 of ABC/Shondaland’s STATION 19 and was a fellow of the 2024 Disney CTDI Directing Program, Ryan Murphy’s HALF Initiative Program and Netflix’s 2023 Episodic Directors on the Rise Masterclass. Letia directed the coming of age pilot set on a HBCU campus, 3 BLIND MICE, which won Essence Film Festival’s 2024 Audience Choice Award for Best Indie Pilot and a comedic mockumentary short, CLONES, which won the 2022 Lionsgate/STARZ Award for Best Speculative Fiction Film. Her MFA thesis film from the University of Southern California, THE CYPHER, about a q***r black rapper, premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and ABFF HBO Competition. She then wrote and directed a medieval fantasy romcom THE QUEEN, THE KNIGHT, AND THE WITCH which was a finalist in the 2022 Tribeca x CHANEL Through Her Lens Program and is currently in post. Letia loves to tell bold stories for both film and television.

Email [email protected] to receive a link to the registration!

10/09/2025

16mm Student Film Showcase

Thursday, 10/9 @ 7pm

Join us for a celebration of analog filmmaking at UWM! Featuring brand-new 16mm works from Film 220 and Advanced 16mm Production, this program honors our department’s long legacy of creative, hands-on engagement with celluloid.

Come see what’s been made in the camera, the lab, and the projector’s glow.

Films by: Calvin Strasser, Ike Lavitschke, Nicholas Dachelet, Coen Kriofske Mainella, Al Pagel, Jaden Starks, Ruby Anderson, Ally Ramirez, Kat Charles, Catcher Stodola, Sam Tills, Nathan Strickland, Kit Freyer, and Jordan Kaurala.

✨See you at the cinema!

09/12/2025

Special Features is back! Join us at CASTING CALLS: Auditioning & Casting Strategies for Short Films 🎬 | Thursday, Sept. 18 2025 | 6:30-8:30p | MIT B91 | Open to students, staff and community!

Special Features is an artist talk and workshop series that is meant to provide filmmakers with practical and insightful advice and skills with navigating a variety of film industries.

We are happy to welcome the first guest of the semester, our very own, Paulina Lule!

Casting and auditioning is such an integral part to the filmmaking process and can often make or break your project. Stop by to Special Features and learn how to properly run an audition, how to cast your actors net wide and find the right people for your film.

Paulina Lule is an American actor and filmmaker. They were born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their acting training began at the Joanne Baron/DW Brown Studio in Santa Monica where they completed a 2-year Meisner Technique Conservatory program. They then auditioned for and were accepted into the inaugural class of the Los Angeles branch of the award-winning Identity School of Acting. Since then, they have appeared in several television shows including recurring roles on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and ABC’s General Hospital. They also studied film directing and screenwriting at the Academy for Creative Media at University of Hawaii-Manoa and received a Master of Fine arts from Chapman University in Orange County. Their films have played at several festivals and won awards including at the BronzeLens Festival in Atlanta and the Pan African Film festival in Los Angeles