New films opening Dec. 5 at Cinema Art Theater

The Rehoboth Beach Film Society’s Cinema Art Theater will continue its Classic Holiday Film Series with a screening of “The Muppet Christmas Carol” at 1 p.m., Friday, Dec. 5. 

In this retelling of the classic Dickens tale, Ebenezer Scrooge, miser extraordinaire, is held accountable for his dastardly ways during nighttime visitations by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. Doug James, costume designer for the film, will be on hand for a discussion. 

Also opening Dec. 5 is “Merrily We Roll Along,” a film about award-winning Broadway composer Franklin Shepard, who abandons his theater career and all his friends in New York in order to produce films in Los Angeles. The story begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backward in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Shepard’s life.

From Executive Producer Ang Lee comes “76 Days Adrift,“ an immersive documentary about one man's extraordinary survival story after a catastrophic collision with a whale left his boat sinking in the dead of night in February 1982.

A free screening (registration required) of “Handel’s Messiah” will take place Thursday, Dec. 11. Discovered at age 9 and a celebrated composer by age 18, George Frideric Handel is best known for his oratorio “Messiah.” This film reveals in poignant detail how his magnum opus came to be. To register for the film showing, go to rehobothfilm.com/CAT-this-week-cinema-art-theater-now-playing.