Cinema Society Soaring 

SBIFF’s private preview series with post-screening talent Q&A sessions – which is not exclusively private these days – heats up mightily in the waning weeks before winter as the Oscar hopefuls queue up for attention. Screenings at the Riviera Theatre this week start (Friday, December 1, at 7 pm) with Armenia’s Oscar Submission Amerikatsi – Michael Goorjian’s story of Charlie, who returns to Armenia decades after fleeing as a child in the hope of finding a connection to his roots, but winds up unjustly imprisoned in the country crushed under Soviet rule. But the movie is also filled with warmth and humor as it celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the bonds that unite us all. The Q&A is with Goorjian, who wrote, directed, and stars in the film. 

Netflix’s Society of the Snow, Spain’s Oscar Submission, kicks off two Saturday screenings. This survival thriller is based on the 1972 flight disaster known as Miracle of the Andes when a Uruguayan plane chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile crashed in the Andes. Q&A with writer-director J. A. Bayona is at 10:30 am… Air, which is directed by and stars Oscar-winner Ben Affleck (Argo), is the biographical sports drama that delves into the game-changing partnership between then rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division that revolutionized sports endorsement and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. Q&A with editor William Goldenberg is at 5 pm.

Go big or go home: It’s a SBIFF Cinema Society screening of Barbie, one of the year’s biggest blockbusters, co-written and directed by Greta Gerwig, with Margot Robbie starring as the doll come-to-life. Q&A (December 3 at 10 am) participants TBA… It’s also TBA for the Q&A for Memory, the Jessica Chastain/Peter Sarsgaard drama about Sylvia, a social worker who leads a simple and structured life before Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. (Screening is set for 7 pm on December 6.)

In between, the star power quotient is palpable on Tuesday night when writer-director Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th) brings her latest film to town, Origin, a biographical drama based upon Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film chronicles the tragedy and triumph of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Wilkerson – portrayed by Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard) – that she experienced as she investigated the impact of caste on societies shaped by them, and their people. (Screening at 6 pm on December 5.)

Check www.sbiff.org for tickets and details.