The Milwaukee Film logo and website have gotten the remake treatment, officials with the nonprofit behind the Milwaukee Film Festival, Oriental Theatre and Downer Theatre announced Jan. 9.
Overseen by local design firm Northern Ground, the new logo depicts layers of rectangles in different shades of red, orange and yellow emanating from a black rectangle reflective of a dark movie screen. It replaces the previous look that recalled light shining from a circle (reminiscent of an operating film projector).
In an open letter about the change, Milwaukee Film Executive Director Susan Kerns suggests the new logo turns “away from apparatus and toward experience, while still incorporating the aspect ratios of historic cinematic presentation.”
“This logo, with its colors reminiscent of the Oriental Theatre, the Downer Theatre and celluloid film stock itself, feels like a part of the theaters and calls one inside,” Kerns wrote. “It frames the movies while drawing us together to experience them.”
The redesigned website at mkefilm.org, Kerns wrote, was influenced by “photos of movie theaters from the 1910s and 1920s, when the Downer and the Oriental Theatres were built.” Advertising on old theater marquees was an influence, with the new website designed to be “a digital marquee of sorts,” Kerns wrote.
“The homepage is big, bold and yells at you a little bit,” she noted. “We see it as part of our theaters’ exteriors, the outside talker encouraging folks to enter the funhouse.”
Milwaukee Film has endured some struggles in recent years. According to the nonprofit’s 990 federal tax filings for 2022 and 2023, it had deficits of more than $1.78 million and $2.51 million, respectively. The organization’s net assets dropped from $10.38 million at the end of 2021 to $6.13 million in 2023.
Jonathan Jackson, Milwaukee Film CEO for nearly 16 years, resigned in early 2024. Anne Reed, who had retired as head of the Wisconsin Humane Society, became Milwaukee Film’s interim CEO, with the organization in August 2024 cutting education and artist services programs and several positions to focus on its two theaters, the annual film festival and “financial stability,” Reed told the Journal Sentinel.
Kerns, a filmmaker and film professor who was Milwaukee Film’s education director from 2010 to 2013, became executive director of Milwaukee Film in February 2025. A slimmed-down Milwaukee Film Festival followed two months later. With about a 30% drop in offerings and screenings limited to the Oriental and Downer theaters, the 2025 festival last April drew 32,004 moviegoers – just 620 fewer patrons than the much larger 2024 festival – with an average 47% attendance increase per screening.
The 18th annual Milwaukee Film Festival will run April 16-30, 2026.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Film rebrands with new logo, website redesign
Reporting by Piet Levy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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