Midwest Film Festivel – Day 2: Up Next/Emerging July 24, 2026

More info

Discover the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers through breakthrough films, emerging voices, and conversations focused on the future of Midwest cinema. This is where tomorrow’s names show up first.

TICKETING
General Admission: $85.43
Students/Seniors: $25.42

DAY 2 – UP NEXT
BLOCK 1: Fresh Cuts: Documentary Voices

Time: 11:00 am

Films Included:

Brac — Directed by Armin Korsos
Theda Bara’s Memoirs — Directed by Nadya Ellerhorst
COEXIST — Directed by Angie Panganiban
Substance of Venom — Directed by Cherie Sampson
Retazos — Directed by Daniela Morales Morcillo
How We Roll — Directed by Anthony Ciancio
*Dad vs. Bees — Directed by David Quach
*BMA Nominee

FEATURE-1

TIME: 2:00pm

What Rhymes with Magdalena (Directed by Jose Perez) Run time 1hr 40, 30 Min talkback

What Rhymes with Magdalena is about the stories we tell ourselves about love and the ones we can no longer outrun. On the night before her wedding, a poet sets out across the city to revisit the ghosts of her past relationships – seeking, in each encounter, an answer to a question she cannot yet name.

Set in Chicago’s Little Village, the film unfolds as a lyrical reckoning with memory, desire, and the unraveling of intimacy over time. What emerges is a portrait of love in its afterlife, where connection lingers, transforms, and refuses to resolve cleanly.

BLOCK 2: 10×10 Voices on the Rise

TIME: 5:00pm

Films Included:

*Crossing the Desert — Directed by Reena Dutt
*Pistachio — Directed by Adriana Trajkovski and Jesse Rothenberg
*Worn and Reborn — Directed by Mykhailo Bogdanov
*One Small Step — Directed by Cayson Wernick
Haunt — Directed by Nathan Suggs
Save Yourself: An Anti-Suicide PSA — Directed by Lawrence Q. Hu
Stay — Directed by Dylan Kaufmann
*First Winter — Directed by Schantelle Alonzo
*This Ghost Wants a Friend — Directed by Yanely Castellanos
*Hamster in My Head — Directed by Jerry S. Gonzalez
*BMA Nominee