Screen Cuisine: Food-Happy Films To Watch In 2012

The only thing we like better than eating or making food is looking at it.

So we've combed through the movie-season mire and unearthed the most appealing culinary-related plotlines of the moment. Here, your cinematic crib sheet:

Grow!: Agriculture, an industry in which the median age is 57, has a fresh set of devotees, a new breed of young people who have taken up farming. This film follows 20 educated, young professionals who have left the city to farm. Find a screening

The First Season: From a producer of Boardwalk Empire, this film casts a starker view of the realities of farming. A couple uses their life savings to buy a defunct dairy farm and quickly realize that making a living by milking cows is nearly impossible. Premiere: January

Perfect Sense: Ewan McGregor dons chef's whites for this thriller in which he plays a chef who falls in love with an epidemiologist just as an epidemic eliminates people's senses. The film offers creative scenarios of a world without taste: a restaurant critic that bases his reviews on texture, and a world in which people will eat anything–flowers, lipstick and more–to stay alive. Premiere: February

Jiro Dreams of Sushi: Jiro Ono is 85 years old and has dedicated his life to the art of sushi. Working from a slip of a restaurant in a Tokyo subway station, he's considered by many to be the best sushi chef in the world. Director David Gelb captures Ono's dedication and his relationship with his son (and successor). Premieres: March

Somm: This film tracks the journeys of four wine professionals as they prepare to take the Master Sommelier examination. With one of the lowest passing rates in the world, the test is infamously difficult. The creators were granted unprecedented access and have documented a fascinating glimpse into the passionate, esoteric pursuit. Premieres: April