2026 Film: Teeth for Tithes

Teeth for Tithes by Stephanie Kalogriopoulos
New York (Wisconsin Premiere)

Running Time: 10 minutes

Comedy

September 

Avalon Atmospheric Theater

2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

It’s the height of summer 1999, the time is 2AM. You’ve fallen asleep on the couch when a glow from the TV nudges you awake. Enter Pastor Holy offering you the deal of a lifetime… Or rather, the deal of an eternity.

2026 Film: The Timekeeper

The Timekeeper by Chenchen Zhou
Los Angeles, CA (Wisconsin Premiere)

Running Time: 3 minutes

Animation

September 

Avalon Atmospheric Theater

2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

Director's Statement:

This film is inspired by my personal memories of growing up with my grandmother—a woman whose life was built around precision and punctuality. As a child, I often felt frustrated by the rigidity of her routines, unable to understand why being “on time” mattered so deeply to her. It was only when I learned about her past—that she had worked as an engineer in Beijing to ensure the accuracy of national timekeeping—that I began to see her differently. I realized her strictness was not a constraint, but a form of care, forged from the responsibility she once shouldered for millions of unseen people.

Through The Timekeeper, I wanted to explore how love can be expressed in unexpected forms—through discipline, routine, and responsibility—and how those forms can transform into tenderness when understood from a new perspective. The film’s visual language blends the wonder of childhood with surreal symbolic imagery, reflecting the way personal histories can feel both distant and magical when uncovered later in life.

I hope this story encourages audiences to look again at the people who shaped them—to see the hidden stories and quiet devotion that often lie behind their everyday actions.

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Director's Bio:

Chenchen Zhou is a Chinese film director and producer. Her personal films explore the imaginative intersection of childhood perspective and surreal visual storytelling. She currently works as an executive producer at iQIYI, one of China’s largest streaming platforms, where she develops and produces animated series. Zhou earned her MFA in Animation from the University of Southern California. She is the recipient of the ASIFA Animation Forum Scholarship and the USC Annenberg Fellowship. Her short films have been officially selected and showcased at international film festivals.

2026 Film: Never Fell in Love

Never Fell In Love by Tommy Simms
Wisconsin (World Premiere)
Running Time: 4 minutes

Thriller/Horror/Music Video

 

September 

Avalon Atmospheric Theater

2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

Bereft of life, an aristocrat's estate is at stake. Motives unfold around a debonair heir, who is set to inherit the keys to the kingdom. Further suspicions arise as accusations fly about the estate’s staff. Time for the detective to swoop in and solve this whodunnit! What clues will be unearthed behind this bloodthirsty enigma?

Instagram

Instagram

Director's Bio:

Tommy Simms is an interdisciplinary artist and award-winning filmmaker, specializing in stop-motion animation. While pursuing his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Tommy discovered that filmmaking combines his passions for a variety of art forms. Animation is his main focus, but his work also ventures into puppetry and live-action. No matter the artistic style, the narratives of Tommy's films are executed with an animated approach. Capping off his time at UWM, Tommy single-handedly animated his senior stop-motion, “The Legend of Leatherface Larry,” which earned the honor of being showcased at the 67th Festival de Cannes. His subsequent works have been featured in film festivals around the world, on PBS, in theatre productions, and even at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Tommy’s work on the candy-coated animated short, "She Was Crying Sugar" granted him a Best Director award from Milwaukee's International Short Film Fest, and won Best Mixed Media at the Los Angeles Animation Festival, among other notable accolades. In addition to filmmaking, Tommy shares his creative knowledge with aspiring artists. For years, he taught puppetry and stop-motion courses online and at art camps across the United States alongside public television's Emmy Award-winning cartoonist, Mark Kistler. Now, a frequent collaborator with the indie rock band, Fuzzysurf, and one half of the storytelling duo at Simwig Studios, Tommy’s animated adventures continue with the production of independent films and music videos.

Director's Statement:

Originally conceived as a music performance, Fuzzysurf’s “Never Fell In Love” evolved into a fully conceptualized whodunnit a few days before the film shoot. Upon viewing the vintage decor of Milwaukee’s event venue, Dandy, inspiration struck the band as they realized this moody location could double as the perfect setting for a sinister story. And thus, the narrative was penned. Taking notes from classic literary and cinematic whodunnits, our penny dreadful follows an eccentric detective toiling through a dire case that would delight the likes of Agatha Christie. The usual suspects are mustered up, allegations are spewed, and evidence is revealed, all set to the score of Fuzzysurf’s melodramatic tune. The song’s lyrics act as the script of the deceased’s letter, a testament to why he won’t leave his inheritance to a potential lover. Tensions rise amongst the characters with each passing verse. However, the entire story is presented without anyone uttering a single word. The players pantomime their way through every plot twist leading up to the eventual conundrum, is being caught red handed just a red herring?

2026 Film: ConTempt Warning

ConTempt Warning by Ian Anastas

Wisconsin (Wisconsin Premiere)

Running Time: 3 minutes

Comedy/ Animation

September 

Avalon Atmospheric Theater

2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

Alone in a desolate wasteland, our hero attempts a musical performance for a smart phone that appears to have a mind of its own.

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Director's Bio:

Ian Anastas is an artist, animator, and has been an educator in fine arts and creative technology for over 15 years. He has taught elementary through high school students in subjects ranging from computer science, programming, video game design, robotics, 3D modeling and printing, 2D and 3D animation, as well as fine art subjects such as drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and art history. He has also led several continuing education seminars for adult educators covering educational technology, game design, programming, and animation. Ian has also worked as a freelance artist in the fields of illustration, comics, and tattoo design. In November of 2025, Ian completed his MFA in animation through the Savannah College of Art and Design. He lives in the city of Milwaukee with his wife and two children. ConTempt Warning is his first film.

Director's Statement:

As a storyteller I’m attracted to genre fiction’s capacity for exploring broad ethical questions without necessarily being prescriptive. There’s a brutality to comedy, horror, and science fiction that can cut directly to playing with ideas around moral principles. I think animation is a marvelous convention to leverage in this context because it allows for complete control to abstract the visuals and performances to suit the artist’s needs, even if it is just to get a laugh.
ConTempt Warning is, in part, a love letter to the animated comedies that I fell in love with as a child. Specifically, these include the American short animated musical comedies of the 1940s
and 50s produced by Warner Brothers, MGM, and Disney. As could only be achieved through animation, works of this era integrated their visuals with what I see as the spirit of the Surrealists and Absurdists, which were emerging subversive artistic and philosophical movements of that time. They also leveraged and pushed the timelessly effective comedic performance motifs of the silent film era and classical Hollywood established by greats like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, The Marx Brothers, and The Three Stooges.

This film is also meant to comedically satirize social media content creation. The space that animation should now occupy is something I think about often as a (hopefully) burgeoning but middle-aged filmmaker. In a media culture of dying cinemas and over-saturated television, suffused with a depthless abyss of inane internet content, this film is an attempt to find that space by reaching back to those beloved conventions that I also happen to think are distinctly suited for this effort.

2026 Film: Joy Ride

Joy Ride by Eric Greenberg
New Jersey (Wisconsin Premiere)

Running Time: 10 minutes

Documentary

September 

Avalon Atmospheric Theater

2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

It’s 3:07pm in the afternoon and a blue Lincoln Continental is barreling down a narrow Maryland backroad at 50 miles per hour. Undeterred by the approaching curve and his passenger’s plea for safety, the daredevil is forging ahead. It could be two teenagers on a joy ride. But on this day - June 20, 1973 - it’s happening under the guise of international diplomacy. And the men in the front seat, left to their own devices, are the leader of the Communist party and the President of the United States.

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Website

2026 Film: Cream City- An Ode to Milwaukee

Cream City- An Ode to Milwaukee by Dusan Harminc

Wisconsin (Wisconsin Premiere)

Running Time: 4 minutes
Experimental

September 

Avalon Atmospheric Theater

2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

"Cream City" is a moody vibes experimental short that explores the multiverse concept by applying mirror and symmetry effects on aerial footage of the Milwaukee skyline.

The project was shot over a period of six years and features music by the David Roy Collective.

2026 Film: Screen Memory

Screen Memory by Maggie Murphy

North Carolina (Wisconsin Premiere)

Running Time: 4 minutes
Animation/ Experimental

September 

Avalon Atmospheric Theater

2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

Informed by Freud’s concept of screen memory—the notion that an ordinary childhood memory can mask a more complex experience—this short film combines hand-drawn animation with VHS home video. Using materials associated with childhood play, including colored pencil, crayon, marker, stickers, and glitter, the film intervenes directly in archived domestic footage. These layered gestures surround a young child with protective figures and imagined abilities, transforming home movies into a hybrid site where memory is reworked and the past is engaged through practices of care and repair.