For the past seven of its 22 year history, the Florida Film Festival has offered food events along with the cinematic features. For most of those years, there was little synergism between the two. You’d go see a movie, then go have something to eat. But the movies are full of food references. There are even some, such as Big Night and Babette’s Feast that are food centric.

FFF has slowly been making those connections. This year, there are food-themed movies on tap, such as a double bill of Pride & Joy, a documentary about Southern food and culture, and Sugar Shack, which sounds like it would be a Southern movie, too, but which instead is about the maple syrup business in Canada. (Here would have been a great opportunity to pair the movie with a pancake breakfast!)

The big food event for the festival will be the Saturday Night Whole Cookery Feast at Cask & Larder. Co-owners James and Julie Petrakis will share their kitchen with Brandon McGlamery of Luma on Park; Martha Foose, a James Beard award-winning cookbook author; and Donald Bender of Mississippi’s Mockingbird Bakery. Cask & Larder’s resident brewmeister, Ron Raike, is brewing something special, too. Tickets for the cookery, which will feature coq au vin, roasted oysters, roasted leg of lamb, a Low Country shrimp boil and other goodies, are $150 each or $250 a pair.

Also showing at this year’s festival is SOMM, about the Court of Master Sommeliers and the grueling master sommelier test. (What fun to have had a wine tasting at the same time — perhaps hosted by one of our three persons locally to have passed the test!)

Italian Cinema Night, on Monday, April 8, will be sponsored by Buca di Beppo with a tasting of Italian foods at the Enzian’s Eden Bar. The movie, however, is 8 1/2, the Fellini classic that is not so much about food.

On Sunday there’s a brunch and there are a couple of other food panel discussions and beverage receptions. Click this link to the Florida Film Festival’s website for all the details of movies and events and for ticket information.

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