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Of course, awards don't mean everything. A beautiful masterpiece can be overlooked just as simply as a vapid disaster can be praised for the wrong reasons. However, if there's one award that tends to hold its weight, it's the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. Introduced in 1955, if nothing else, the award has been indicative of a film's lasting power and the sustained and wonderful career if its director. From David Lynch and Wim Wenders to Bunuel and Antonioni to Coppola and Scorsese to Tarantino and Kiarostami, to Haneke and Malick, the Palme d'Or winning films of the last 66 years have been some of the most influential and beloved pieces of modern filmmaking around the world. So with Cannes in full swing, here's a look at some of the best films to win the coveted award over the years. Enjoy.

Well, after To the Wonder premiered last month to a devise set of reviews—either raving that it was a symphonic ballet of emotion and beauty or a shallow and two-dimension story that looked stunning but lacked feeling—we're all wondering just where the other features he's been working on will fall on the Terrence Malick scale of greatness. And next up, before his Austin-set music film is Knight of Cups, starring Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, and Cate Blanchett. And with the Cannes Film Festival kicking off today, foreign distributor's will get their first taste of the film when FilmNation debuts footage at the festival. But for us, The Hollywood Reporter has now released the first time from the film—and it's truly shocking.

Between the production announcements for Wim Wender's Every Thing Will Be Fine and Joachim Trier's Louder Than Bombs, this has been a great week for anticipating 2014's most coveted releases. But just in time for Ryan Gosling to head to Cannes for the premiere of Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, it's been announced that his directorial debut How to Catch a Monster, has been picked up by Warner Bros. Back in January, we reported that English actor Matt Smith, best known for Dr. Who would be leading the picture opposite Christina Hendricks and alongside Eva Mendes and Ben Mendelsohn. 

Toss your beloved DVD collect to the side and head to the theater, because all of your favorite movies are playing this weekend. And no, I doubt I'm being hyperbolic when I say that there is surely a personal classic for everyone screening around the city, and what better way to view your most cherished piece of cinema than in the format it deserves? Whether you're one for PT Anderson's evocative ensemble dramas, Terrence Malick's magic hour murders, David Lynch's haunting and heartbreaking surrealism, or Quentin Tarantino's black-humored violence there are plenty of undoubtable masterpieces of film to enjoy, alongside some of the most-acclaimed new movies of the year. I've rounded up the best of what's playing throughout New York City this weekend—so peruse the list, see what you're in the mood for, go get yourselves some Twizzlers, and head down to the cinema. Enjoy.

Jennifer Lawrence may have taken home the Oscar for Best Actress, but there's no denying it's Jessica Chastain who has become Hollywood's most coveted actress—and rightfully so. After first seeing her in Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, the world fell under her spell of talent and charm and watched closely as went on to give one of the year's best performances in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty. And since, directors have been pining after the actress, landing her starring roles in the upcoming Miss Julie from Liv Ullmann and Crimson Peak from Guillermo del Toro. But now, it appears she can add another notable name to the list as she joins the cast of Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated Interstellar.

Yesterday, in our interview with Michael Shannon, we shared that although he was cut from Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, "it was still a fascinating experience." He then went on on to say that he, "spent a day down there walking around with Ben Affleck and doing these completely random scenes where the camera was just going all over the place, and you never knew where it was going to be." And speaking the the enigmatic director's desire to capture the ineffable moments in everyday life said that, "I've heard Malick say, 'I'm just trying to find the spontaneous, I just want something truly spontaneous to happen.'"

Good lord, people. Remember when superhero movies weren't so satisfied with themselves? I get that Zach Snyder, auteur behind overblown green-screen epics like Watchmen, 300, and Sucker Punch (he's really the thinking man's Michael Bay, huh?), doesn't want to be known solely for making the least subtle genre films ever, but in his attempt to make what appears to be a very serious drama featuring a man in tights and a cape is looking more and more like the least fun thing in the world. And also, prettttty gay. I mean, tights and a cape and that dude's jaw. Come on. This is basically a Terrence Malick film but with explosions and a familiar plot mixed in with all the soft-focus shots of wheat. 

It’s a chilly evening in New York as I greet Diane Kruger at the restaurant of the NoMad Hotel, a sceney new destination in the recently-made-up NoMad (“North of Madison Square Park”) neighborhood, where midtown suits supposedly mingle with downtown denim. Kruger has just arrived back in the States from a two-week vacation in South America, one of those life-affirming adventures with her longtime partner, actor Joshua Jackson, that involved desert trekking, mountain climbing, and long, quiet moments beholding the vast beauty of the natural world. It was a welcome break from her hectic schedule, as the German-born veteran of such films as Troy, National Treasure, and Inglorious Basterds has been working nonstop. After completing work in The Host, a film based on the book by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, she immediately moved on to the Terrence Malick-helmed The Green Blade Rises, and shot a pilot for FX called The Bridge. But tonight, she seems relaxed and happy to be back in New York, looking cozy and gorgeous in a white patterned sweater. She’ll soon fly back to her house and vegetable garden in Los Angeles before alighting once again in Paris, where she keeps an apartment, and, apparently, her heart. But, for now, we’ll share some radishes and thoughts on acting, gardening, and the meaning of home.  

Terrence Malcik's emotionally symphonic world of beauty vacillates between pleasure and pain, divinity and destruction, told through shadows of life that play out like memories rather than moments. And whether or not you were dazzled by To the Wonder, his latest and perhaps most divisive, there's a undeniable grace there that exists and breathes inside all of his work. My favorite moments in To the Wonder had little to do with the characters, finding transfixed by his portrayal of the physical modern world—from the vacant fields of Oklahoma to the machines that watch over us with loving grace, and the ways in which he uses the camera like a gentle gust of wind to guide us. 

In terms of film, this is a good week to be sick or helplessly in love—which I suppose, are generally the same thing. But between Brandon Cronenberg's bloody good first feature Antiviral, Todd Hayne's brilliantly frightening Safe, and Terrence Malick's latest poem of emotion and grace To the Wonder, there are plenty of painful and gorgeous movies to sink your teeth into. And after the death of beloved film critic and cinematic enthusiast Roger Ebert last week, we should be encouraged more than ever to go to the movies, to enjoy the art of film, and truly have an experience at the cinema. So this weekend, curl up in a darkened theater and see everything from Quentin Tarantino's first fantastically gory feature to Kubrick's horrific masterpiece, and a bit of something for everyone in between. I've rounded up the best in what's playing throughout New York so peruse the list and enjoy.