A lovable tramp pokes two potatoes with forks and dances them around the table like a pair of disembodied marionette legs to the delight of a dinner party, only to literally eat his shoes during a cold, desperate future famine.

A lovelorn canine couple enjoys a romantic candlelight dinner in an alley behind an Italian restaurant, each unknowingly slurping down the same long strand of spaghetti until their lips meet.

A gang of incarcerated Goodfellas thin-slices garlic, boils pasta, cooks sausage, meatballs and steaks, and drinks red wine, polishing the palms of guards who turn blind eyes to their contraband and makeshift prison kitchen.

They are some of cinema’s most instantly recognizable scenes. Iconic moments burned into the collective film lovers’ consciousnesses. But they are linked by something that transcends the movies. They all celebrate food, specifically the emotions and connections that gastrointestinal pursuits can spur, from love and consolation to a familial sense of community and beyond.

Cinema shares similar intimacies with its audiences, so it’s no surprise that the two are intertwined so often. It’s also no surprise that a film festival would be devoted to this symbiosis.

The First Annual Chicago Food Film Festival at the MCA Warehouse this weekend fills the void perfectly in a wholly original manner.

An offshoot of a popular New York City festival now in its fifth year of operation, The Chicago Food Film Festival presents a wide variety of feature-length and short narrative films and documentaries with a foodie base, while employing a “Taste-o-Vision” gimmick that recalls the promotional stunts of famed producer William Castle of The Tingler and 13 Ghosts fame.

However, in lieu of Castle’s shocks and frights, this fest produces watered mouths and satiated stomachs by serving the delights featured in the films, allowing audiences the collective enjoyment of tasting what they see on the screen.

The cinematic and culinary offerings are divided into two parts, with separate fare for each evening.

Friday’s program, “Edible Adventure #002: Savory and Sweet,” features shorts about a man’s quest to eat every fried food at the Wisconsin State Fair, a rolling produce stand run out of a pickup truck in New Orleans and ice cream melting in time lapse, as well as a thriller centered around celery, a portrait of an oyster obsessive and an introduction to the mind behind Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in Los Angeles.

Accompanying foods include dishes from Shaw’s Crab House, Hoosier Mama Pie Company, cheeses from Jarlsberg, Garcia Baquero and Woolwich Dairy, Wisconsin State Fair fare, exotic sodas from Dry Soda Company and more.

Saturday night promises more gut-busting insanity with “The Chicago Burger and Beer Experience,” an evening curated by DMK Burger Bar chef Michael Kornick. It’s a meaty affair.

The night’s centerpiece, Beer Wars, guides viewers into the world of corporate beer production and the small brewers left in the behemoths’ wake. Screened with the full-length doc are The Best of Hamburger America, an abbreviated version of Food Film Festival founder Greg Motz’s celebrated doc, and Cud, which looks at a rancher who raises only grass-fed cattle.

Saturday’s foods complement with simple elegance — burgers from DMK; beers by brewing companies Stone, Two Brother, and Half Acre; and cookies by Carol’s.

Kornick, Beer Wars director Anat Baron, Greg Koch of Stone Brewing, Bill and Sam Sianis from The Billy Goat Tavern and Check, Please! executive producer David Manilow will also be on hand for questions, creating an evening to please both movie-going taste buds and minds.