Re-named Door County Film Fest Announces 2025 Selections

16th Annual Event Expands to 3 Days, Features New Ticketing Options

Fish Creek, Wis. (February 11, 2025) — The Door County Film Fest has announced its official program lineup for the 16th annual event, scheduled for February 13-15 at Northern Sky Theater’s Barbara and Spencer Gould Theater. The festival will feature a variety of independent short and feature films including comedy, drama, suspense, action, romance, foreign-produced and documentary. Last year’s festival sold out in advance, spurring executive director Chris Opper and his team to make changes aimed at helping meet the growing public interest.

“We’ve made an important new ticketing option available,” said Opper, “which allows attendees to purchase individual sessions, as well as the full pass for all sessions. Now you can attend for just a single day, for instance, or attend all sessions of the entire festival. Further, for 15 years the festival weekend extended over just two days, on a Friday and Saturday. This year we’ve added a third day, and the festival will open on Thursday night, running through Saturday night. We’ve also changed the event’s name from Door County Short Film Fest to simply Door County Film Fest, to better reflect our mission of encouraging the creation of new films in all formats and lengths.”

For those who are unable to attend the festival in-person, an online streaming option has been added. Starting Sunday, February 16, a day after the in-person festival ends, the public can purchase streaming tickets through the festival’s newly-created website (doorcountyfilmfest.com). Just like the in-person festival, virtual attendees can purchase passes for one or more sessions or purchase an all-inclusive pass. Chris Opper noted that filmmaker interviews and other bonus content are already available on the new site at no charge. Films are available for streaming until Sunday, February 23.

The festival will open and kick off its newly-added Thursday night with the feature “February” from Los Angeles director Nathan Deming, who grew up in Tomah, WI. Deming’s film follows a recent immigrant, Miguel (David Ezekiel Duran), who struggles to fit into a small town in Wisconsin until he discovers ice fishing. The filmmaker says “February” is a portrait of family, resilience, the immigrant experience, and the things we have in common. The films appearing on Thursday night are part of a student filmmaker showcase that includes “I Remember That Night,” written and directed by Jacob Lefeber, a recent UW-Oshkosh graduate and Sturgeon Bay High School alumni.

Another addition to this year’s festival is the new ‘filmmaker mixer’ on Friday night (4-6pm) in the lobby of the Barbara and Spencer Gould Theater, featuring a number of recognizable area personalities in TV and film, including Kevin Wehrenberg, producer of ABC’s “Wipeout” and NBC’s “Fear Factor.”

Wehrenberg will also offer the evening’s keynote address before screening the documentary short “Are We Listening?” The evening’s slate of films concludes with “Green Blah! The History of Green Bay Punk Rock.” The documentary tells the story of Green Bay, Wisconsin’s punk rock and independent music scene as well as neighboring communities in Northeast Wisconsin, including Appleton, Oshkosh, Manitowoc, and Sturgeon Bay.

After Friday night’s films, festival patrons are invited to Husby’s Food and Spirits in Sister Bay for musical entertainment. Two bands with ties to the “Green Blah!” documentary, Ballistic Biscuit and After the Dog, will both perform, starting at 10:30pm. Ballistic Biscuit is scheduled to play its first live set since before the start of the COVID era, while After The Dog has not played live in a public venue since 1994.

Saturday’s programming consists of three sessions of short films from the U.S., Canada, Spain and The Netherlands. The festival then wraps up with the feature documentary “Closure,” directed by Ken Brosky of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Massive budget cuts, mergers, political attacks, and declining enrollments have devastated Wisconsin’s University System. At the center of the crisis are the two-year community colleges that serve the celebrated “Wisconsin Idea” by providing higher education access everywhere in the state. Under tremendous stress, the campuses are being shut down at a time when rural communities need them most. Join Ken Brosky as he investigates the impact of campus closures and tries to find a way to stop them before it’s too late.

The Door County Film Fest will present four submitting filmmakers with “Golden Mug Awards” in 2025, each handcrafted by local potter Larry “Thor” Thoreson of Gills Rock Pottery. The four award categories are: Jury Award, People’s Choice (short), People’s Choice (feature narrative), and People’s Choice (feature documentary). Festival attendees are encouraged to submit their votes for the three People’s Choice Awards.

The 16th Annual Door County Film Fest will take place Feb. 13-15 at Northern Sky Theater’s Barbara and Spencer Gould Theater, located at 9058 County Road A, Fish Creek, WI 54212. Tickets for the in-person festival can be purchased at northernskytheater.com, while tickets for the festival’s streaming option can be purchased at doorcountyfilmfest.com.