Woody Allen and his cast on the set of "Midnight in Paris"

Credit: Sony Classics

The last time Woody Allen went to France, the result wasn't too bad. 2011's "Midnight in Paris" scored a number of Oscar nominations, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and even a surprise bid for Best Production Design (formerly Best Art Direction). Allen himself won his third writing Oscar to date, and his fourth overall, for penning the script, beating out stiff competition from Best Picture winner "The Artist."

Well it seems he's heading back for his next film, which will go into production this year. There is no title, naturally, as of yet, but the film will star Colin Firth and Emma Stone, the latter a natural fit and a rather obvious choice, given Allen's penchant for scooping up popular young ingenues for his films. He will once again be collaborating with cinematographer Darius Kondji, production designer Anne Seibel and costume designer Sonia Grande on the film, all of whom worked with him on "Midnight."

Tony Stark gets us started on Friday

Credit: Marvel Studios

So "Iron Man 3" launches the summer movie season this Friday. Drew flipped for the movie. I...wasn't so enthused. I loved the Shane Black flourishes and I admire the film's balls for doing what it does with the Mandarin character (no spoilers). I like the idea of boiling it down to more of a Tony Stark film than an Iron Man film. I enjoyed myself. But I had issues with the central villain (Guy Pearce), I felt like the self-containment missed an opportunity to push the overarching story forward and I thought it danced unsuccessfully with fallout from "The Avengers." (I am, though, very glad to see the film brought such a huge economic boost to North Carolina.)

Call me mixed, I guess. But that's my one-off. Nevertheless, it's a great film to kick off the season, even if it ranked way down at #20 on HitFix's big countdown. When I look at that list of 25 movies, though, I have to say, it makes me feel really proud to be a part of the site as we've been the last nearly two years. The variety is superb, a wonderful cross-section of the team's taste and sensibilities. It's just the right mixture of blockbuster and counter-programming fare and I think it's a great primer for the season ahead.

Kristin Scott Thomas in "Only God Forgives."

Credit: TWC/RADiUs

Regular readers know how hard I fell for "Drive" at Cannes two years ago, so when the news broke that Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn were reuniting for a similarly hard-boiled thriller, I admit my usually well-behaved inner fanboy let out a rather loud yelp. Yes, "Only God Forgives" had me at hello -- and that was before they added one of my favorite working actors, Kristin Scott Thomas, to the mix. Gosling's sleek posturing, Refn's heightened action styling and Scott Thomas vamping it up as a black-hearted gangster mama? Did this film somehow get made in my subconscious?

Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric in "Jimmy P."

Credit: Le Pacte

(Welcome to Cannes Check, your annual guide through the 20 films in Competition at next month's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 15. Taking on a different selection every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Steven Spielberg's jury. We're going through the list by director and in alphabetical order -- next up, Arnaud Desplechin with "Jimmy P.")

"The Rocket"

Credit: Red Lamp Films

The 11th annual Tribeca Film Festival has wrapped itself up with a special presentation of the new restoration of Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" last night. If I hadn't been traveling so much the last few weeks, I'd have tried to make it to more events. There was some top-notch programming this year as the festival pivoted toward a new identity.

Friday and today, winners were announced across a wide variety of categories, and the big winner in the narrative jury and audience competitions was Kim Mordaunt's "The Rocket." The film also picked up a prize for actor Sitthiphon Disamoe.

Check out the full list of winners below.

If you've been paying attention to HitFix's on-going 2013 Summer Movie Preview Countdown, you know what the site's staff is eagerly anticipating as we turn the corner into blockbuster season. High concept entertainment like the comic book stylings of "Iron Man 3," "Man of Steel" and "The Wolverine" have already been mentioned, as well as other genre fare, from westerns ("The Lone Ranger") to horror ("The Conjuring"), comedy ("The World's End") to sci-fi ("Star Trek Into Darkness"). How will the top five turn out next week? We'll know soon enough, but in the meantime, we've cooked up a list of under-the-radar goodies to check out in between all the big budget fun.

President Obama as Daniel Day-Lewis playing President Obama.

The White House Correspondents' Dinner has always been an occasion where the President of the United States can poke fun at himself, the press and Washington.  The POTUS then usually endures some good ribbing from that night's comedic headliner. This year, President Obama had a little more fun than usual.

Ramin Bahrani and Dennis Quaid at the LA premiere of "At Any Price."

Credit: AP Photo/Todd Williamson

Chasing the American Dream is a theme so pervasive in US cinema – and often beyond – that it scarcely seems like a theme at all: it's the principle upon which much Hollywood storytelling is built, after all. But few filmmakers have done as much in recent years to redefine and recontextualize the Dream as Ramin Bahrani. North Carolina-born, but of Iranian heritage, Bahrani has a distinct personal perspective on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that has colored all his work to date: the late Roger Ebert, one of his earliest and most loyal champions, has repeatedly described him as the best American director of his generation.

Zac Efron in "At Any Price."

Credit: Sony Classics

Ramin Bahrani's robust farmland drama "At Any Price" has been splitting the critics since its premiere at last year's Venice Film Festival, where it was greeted with scattered boos: some admire its command of old-fashioned melodrama, while others find it gauche and contrived. It's an unfamiliar position for Bahrani, who received pretty universal adoration for his microbudget features "Man Push Cart," "Chop Shop" and "Goodbye Solo" -- the late Roger Ebert, in particular, was a vocal proponent of his work.

Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch in "Prince Avalanche."

Credit: Magnolia Pictures

Yesterday, Kris posted the "teaser" for the teaser of David Gordon Green's Sundance hit "Prince Avalanche." Today, we get the actual teaser, which is still doubtless a slip of a thing compared to whatever trailers hit in the near future. Movie marketing -- even for the little guys -- sure is a peek-a-boo process these days.

Anyway, the one-minute tease is charming enough, understandably selling the film on its loopy comedy rather than its affecting undertow of mourning for an endangered American spirit. The film's certainly funny enough not to bewilder audiences seeking another "Pineapple Express," but it represents a more considered integration of Green's earlier indie melancholy and recent broader comic instincts than the trailer lets on.