In case you missed it, the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival wrapped up Thursday night. It was a blast! (The line for the Closing Night film, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, went around the block.) Oh, and something else wrapped up Thursday night, too: our 15-day Milwaukee Film Festival treasure hunt!

Yes, we did a treasure hunt for MFF25, and yes, someone won! Actually, three people won: the intrepid film-going team of Andrew Sutton, April Balagna, and Bailey Wegner. They successfully navigated a trail populated with more than dozen virtual and physical clues, and found a lockbox stuffed with goodies at the end of it. What were those goodies? A Movie Star Dual Membership to Milwaukee Film (valued at $400), two Cinema Gift Packs (valued at $60 and $30), and $200 cash (valued at $200). That comes to $690! Nice!

Here’s Andrew and April claiming their prize Thursday night. Congrats! (And thanks to Bailey, whom we saw in line a little later, for describing the treasure hunt as “DELIGHTFUL!”)

So how did they do it? We’re glad you asked, because here’s a clue-by-clue solution! Enjoy! (The first clue was included in our original treasure hunt announcement article.)

CLUE #1

Both characters are named “Paige.” If you looked on page 65 of the Milwaukee Film Festival program book you found…

CLUE #2

…this clue, set up with Milwaukee Film months in advance. If you visited a hidden Milwaukee Record page, milwaukeerecord.com/thehuntison, on Wednesday, April 23, you found…

CLUE #3

…this image. “Underground City” is a reference to Landmark Lanes. The blurry image and “Make it so” are references to the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball table in the Landmark. If you went to that table after the Opening Night film on Thursday, April 24 at 8:30 p.m., you found…

CLUE #4

…these stickers. The non-blacked-out number, 6, is the first number of the three-digit lockbox combination. If you visited a hidden Milwaukee Record page, milwaukeerecord.com/thehuntcontinues, on Monday, April 28, you found…

CLUE #5

…this puzzle. The “watch” thing is the end of the URL of a YouTube video. The video is that old “Hello Milwaukee” song from WISN 12. If you added 12 to the number of birds on the cover of the Milwaukee Film Festival program book (6), you got 18. If you visited a hidden Milwaukee Record page, milwaukeerecord.com/thehuntcontinues18, you found…

CLUE #6

…these images. The first name of the actor who played Fonzie is Henry. “Two” Henrys and the “Around the Corner” image are references to Henry’s on Belleview, which is just around the corner from the Downer Theatre. If you visited Henry’s on Thursday, May 1 at 6 p.m., you found…

CLUE #7

…these stickers. The circled “4” in our inaugural year is the second number of the three-digit lockbox combination. If you visited a hidden Milwaukee Record page, milwaukeerecord.com/thehuntisstillon, on Monday, May 5, you found…

CLUE #8

…these images. The blinking letters in the first image spell out “instagram.” If you visited our Instagram page and checked out the comments on a photo of a Cinema Hooligante sponsorship screen, you found…

CLUE #9

…this comment. If you visited a hidden Milwaukee Record page, milwaukeerecord.com/thehuntconcludes, you found…

CLUE #10

…this puzzle. The first YouTube clip is from the 1934 Boris Karloff/Béla Lugosi film The Black Cat. If you went to Black Cat Alley and checked out the new polar bear mural, you found…

CLUE #11

…17 stars (or 23 if you count the stars around the “2”). If you emailed either of those numbers to my old-ass Yahoo email account, you received…

CLUE #12

…this image. “michelle pfeiffer plus jessica lange” is a reference to the 1997 film A Thousand Acres. If you subtract 960 from 1,000 you get 40—a reference to the Milwaukee Film Festival film 40 Acres. If you went to the final screening of that film on Wednesday, May 7 at 8:30 p.m., you heard Black Lens Programmer Ty Williams say the final number of the three-digit lockbox combination, “1,” in his introduction.

And FINALLY, if you stood by the No Parking sign outside the Oriental Theatre before the Closing Night film on Thursday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m., you found the lockbox! And if you entered the combination, 6-4-1, backwards (1-4-6), you opened the lockbox! And you won!

Again, congrats to Andrew, April, and Bailey! And thanks to Milwaukee Film for letting us give this a shot—and for working several clues into their busy, busy schedules. Are we going to do this again next year? Yeah, we’re totally going to do this again next year.