Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof will have new movies, “In Film Nist” (This is not a Film) and “Be Omid é Didar” (Good Bye), respectively, playing in the Official Selection at next week’s Cannes Film Festival.

It’s almost a given that genre films, even if they¬íre accomplished and made by world-class filmmakers don’t win festival awards. Take Curtis Hanson’s ¬ìL.A. Confidential¬î in 1997 and Clint Eastwood’s ¬ìMystic River¬î in 2003, two American noir dramas that were ignored in Cannes but went on to win major Oscars. Both films were sumptuously crafted and superlatively acted but they were made within a familiar generic tradition, classic American cinema.

A singularly quirky, and original sensibility is displayed by writer-director Lisa Krueger in her feature debut, Manny & Lo, a modern fairy tale in which misfits establish a unique bond.

The Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled a slate heavy on European fare and light on U.S. pictures, with only one film, rookie helmer Liza Johnson’s “Return.”

Austin, Texas–The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the 2011 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony, hosted by comedian Owen Egerton in Austin, Texas. Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature categories.