In the comic book world, it’s widely known that The Avengers live and operate out of New York City. Because of this, it’s only fitting that Joss Whedon’s big screen portrayal of the team will close out one of New York’s premiere film festivals, Tribeca.

Collider shares with us the official press release announcing the inclusion of ‘The Avengers’ in this year’s festival. Even though the film stands out among the mostly indie roster of films lined up on the festival schedule, co-founder of Tribeca, Jane Rosenthal, thinks highly of the superhero team-up. In the press release, she says:

“Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ is an exciting ride that absolutely transports audiences. It is the perfect way to end our 11th Festival.”

This world premiere of the movie, happening nearly a month before the film opens wide, is offering local heroes such as police officers, firemen, and members of the military an opportunity to be among the first in the world to see the film and meet the cast as well. Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige says in the press release:

“We are proud that Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ is the closing film of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and we are excited to welcome local heroes to the screening as special guests. We all know and love our iconic Super Heroes, but when it really counts, it’s our real-life heroes who save the world every day by making it a better place for all of us.”

Director Joss Whedon is also “thoroughly psyched” that ‘The Avengers’ is closing out the festival. Considering that he grew up in Manhattan and the film wrapped production in New York, it’s a nice bit of full circle action for everyone involved with the project.

Speaking of Whedon, /Film has a bunch of behind the scenes pictures from the movie, and they have dubbed it “Joss Whedon Porn”. The photos show the director interacting with actors Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mark Ruffalo on set. My favorite of all though has to be the shot of Whedon wielding Captain America’s shield, as seen above.

As if you didn’t know already from my constant posts about it, ‘The Avengers’ opens everywhere on May 4th, 2012. I’ll leave you with a picture of Hawkeye looking badass, pre-CGI, even though some may say that he has horrible form as an archer.