AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS
Audience Choice Award Winners are chosen each year by the Wisconsin Film Festival attendees. Audience members cast their ballots upon exiting screenings.
AND THE WISCONSIN FILM FESTIVAL AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD WINNERS ARE…
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2023
Favorite Documentary Feature
Favorite Narrative Feature
Favorite Shorts Program
Favorite Restoration/Rediscovery
Audience Favorite Big Screens Little Folks Program
2022
2021
2019
Audience Favorite Narrative Feature
Yomeddine | Abu Bakr Shawky
Audience Favorite Documentary Feature (tie)
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am | Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Knock Down the House | Rachel Lears
Audience Favorite Restoration/Rediscovery
Creature from the Black Lagoon | Jack Arnold
Audience Favorite Shorts Program
Stories We Tell: Wisconsin’s Own Shorts
Audience Favorite Big Screens, Little Folks Selection
Short and Sweet
2018
Audience Favorite Narrative Feature
Hearts Beat Loud | Brett Haley
Audience Favorite Documentary Feature
RBG | Betsy West & Julie Cohen
Audience Favorite Restoration/Rediscovery
Blue Collar | Paul Schrader
Audience Favorite Shorts Program
A World of Wisconsin’s Own
Audience Favorite Big Screens, Little Folks Selection
Short But Not So Sweet: Revolting Rhymes and Isis + Osiris
2017
Audience Favorite Narrative Feature
My Life as a Zucchini | Claude Barras
Audience Favorite Documentary Feature
STEP | Amanda Lipitz
Audience Favorite Restoration/Rediscovery
One Potato, Two Potato | Larry Peerce
Audience Favorite Shorts Program
Portraits and Pictures from Wisconsin’s Own
Audience Favorite Big Screens, Little Folks Selection
Heidi | Alain Gsponer
2016
Audience Favorite Narrative Feature
Hunt for the Wilderpeople | Taika Waititi
Audience Favorite Documentary Feature
Louder Than Words | Saj Adibs
Audience Favorite Restoration/Rediscovery
Death Wish Club | John Carr
Audience Favorite Shorts Program
Just Be Yourselves: Wisconsin’s Own Narrative Shorts
Audience Favorite Big Screens, Little Folks Selection
Birds of Passage | Olivier Ringer
2015
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
Marie’s Story (Marie Huertin) | Jean Pierre Améris
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
Capturing Grace | David Iverson
Best Restoration or Rediscovery Audience Award Winner
Five Corners | Tony Bill
2014
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
The Rocket | Kim Mordaunt
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs | Grace Lee
Best Restoration or Rediscovery Audience Award Winner
Vertigo | Alfred Hitchcock
2013
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
Coming of Age | Sabine Hiebler and Gerhard Ertl
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
Father’s Birth | Delphine Lanson
Best Restoration or Rediscovery Audience Award Winner
Manhattan | Woody Allen
2012
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
The Intouchables | Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
The Entertainers | Michael Zimmer and Nick Holle
2011
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
Anita | Marcos Carnevale
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
Louder than a Bomb | Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel
2010
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Man Som Hatar Kvinnor) | Niels Arden Oplev
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
Paddle to Seattle: Journey Through the Inside Passage | JJ Kelley and Josh Thomas
2009
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
Departures (Okuribito) | Yojiro Takita
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
Being Bucky | Scott Smith
2008
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
Time to Die (Pora Umierac) | Dorota Kedzierzawska
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
New Year Baby | Socheata Poeuv
2007
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
Wristcutters: A Love Story | Goran Dukic
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
War/Dance | Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
2006
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner (2)
Adam’s Apples | Anders Thomas Jensen
Sweet Land | Ali Selim
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
Isn’t This A Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal | Jim Brown
2005
Narrative Feature Audience Award Winner
Brothers | Susanne Bier
Documentary Feature Audience Award Winner
The Real Dirt on Farmer John | Taggart Siegel
WISCONSIN’S OWN GOLDEN BADGER AWARDS
Filmmakers from Wisconsin make their mark in Hollywood and around the globe. The Wisconsin Film festival is proud to showcase work from some of Wisconsin’s most accomplished filmmakers, University of Wisconsin Alumni and emerging Wisconsin filmmakers.
Wisconsin’s Own is a juried competition for the Golden Badger Awards. Wisconsin Film Festival is grateful for support from The Great Dane, proud sponsor of Wisconsin’s Own!
For filmmakers with “Wisconsin ties,” this is defined as either:
- The film was shot primarily or significantly (at least one-third) on location in Wisconsin.
- One or more of the film’s principle creative personnel – director, producer, screenwriter, cinematogrpher, lead actor, etc. – must be one of the following: a) Wisconsin native b) former Wisconsin resident for one or more years c) current Wisconsin resident or d) alumnus or currently enrolled in a Wisconsin college or university.
AND THE GOLDEN BADGER AWARD WINNERS ARE…
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2023
Friday Night Blind directed by Scott Krahn and Robb Fischer
Carol & Janet directed by Andrea Rosen
Of Wood directed by Owen Klatte
2022
Craigslist Roommate | Arielle Bordow
Ad meliora | Kate Balsley
What You Left Behind | Jayce Kolinksi
2021
Iron Family | Patrick Longstreth
The Passing On | Nathan Clarke
2020
Personhood | Jo Ardinger
Mystery of Now | Audrey Buchanan
N of 1 | Bernard Friedman
2019
Life on the Mississippi | Bill Brown
Elephant Path | Todd McGrain
Played Out | James Runde
2018
FUTURE LANGUAGE: The Dimensions of VON LMO | Lori Felker
Great Light | Tony Oswald
The Blood Is At The Doorstep | Erik Ljung
2017
Cliff, Superfan | Diane Moy Quon
Daedalus and Icarus | Luke Bassuener
Lingua Absentia | Kate Raney and Jeremy Bessoff
2016
2015
2014
Atomic Dream | Derek Lartaud and Melanie Ruiz
Before You | Michael T. Vollmann
Dostoyevsky Behind Bars | Marc Kornblatt
2013
Siszilla | Eric J. Nelson
Gears | Steven Miosku
Loves of a Cyclops | Nathan Punwar
Dear Mr. Watterson | Joel Schroeder
2012
Into the Wake | John Mossman
I Have Always Been a Dreamer | Sabine Gruffat
Glue Man | Joe Pickett
Nindy | Corey Kupfer
2011
Anima Mundi | Katherine Anna Balsley
The Bully | Derek Kimball
Haulin’ Ass | Trevor Velin
Instrumental Video Nine | Mike Winkelmann
In the Courtyard of the Beloved | Andreas Burgess and Sadia Shepard
The Mushroom Sessions | Adam Cosco
Figure in Isolation | Kaleb Durocher and Michelle Chrzanowski
Mary and Bill | Andrew Napier
Under The Sun | Emma Petersen
2010
Baraboo | Mary Sweeney
Cooking on the Car | Mike Savage, Dan Dresser and Jason Wussow
Framework | Quinn Hester
The Grapes of Madison | Ben Reiser
Mary’s Friend | John Roberts
My Way Home | J.P. Chan
Paddle to Seattle: Journey Through the Inside Passage | JJ Kelley and Josh Thomas
Promiseland | Chele Isaac
2009
Beelin’ | Dan WiersGalla
Immortal Cupboard: In Search of Lorine Niedecker | Cathy Cook
Tracks | Josh Rosenberg
Win or Lose: A Summer Camp Story | Louis Lapat
2008
Alaska Far Away | Paul Hill and Joan Juster
The Closing Hour | Grey Gerling
The European Kid | Ian Martin
Madison | Brent Notbohm
Perceval | Tate Bunker
Otto’s Day | Ji-Sun O
Passing Through | Jonathan Bothun
Them’s Trying Times to be a Canine | Joseph Kraemer
2007
Bone Mixers | Doug Gritzmacher abd Mike Dechant
Little Spirits | Cecilia Condit
The Professor’s Daughter | Luke R. Pebler
The Untyings | Romi Chiorean, Katherine Leggett
Walk Into Hell/ Purgatorio | Dal Lazlo and Charles Johannsen
Tops | Brian D. Nelson
The Bird of Night | Alan Schoenberg
Black Box | Joe Sacco
The Long Shadow | Chele Isaac
Me and Jean Pierre | Anna Krutzik
Pinmonkey | Tim Ziegler
2006
Triviatown | Patrick Cady and Brit McAdams
Labor’s Troubadour | Hope Moskowitz
The Magnificent Donut | Karen Lindholm-Rynkiewicz
Scream at Me | Lennell Davis
Ornithology | Caroline Kasetelic
The Road That Takes You There Is the Road That Brings You Back | Michele Isaac
In Passing | Adam Wheeler
2005
Lifelike | John Besmer
Small Town Secrets | Katherine Leggett
My Most Important Self-Portrait | James Baray
The Real Dirt on Farmer John | Taggart Siegel
NBT: Never Been Thawed | Sean Anders
One Minute Interview | Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
Existential Search of a Needle | Fevzi Balli
Blaze Orange | Kevin Kilduff
2004
Interference | Lauren Hollingsworth
Death | Aaron Yonda
Old Night | Molly M. Mann
Not Color Blind, Just Near-sighted | Aaron Greer
I’m Bobby | Xav Leplae
The Adventures of Mad Matt | Scott Rice
Chaza Show Choice | Theresa Columbus, Didier Leplae
Placebo | Diego Costa
Goodbye Milwaukee | Kookhee Choi
No Mutton Huts in Heaven | Brennan Vance