Other winners included Iranian drama A Separation for best foreign language film, while Michael Fassbender was given a special acting award for his roles in four films during 2011, including Jane Eyre and X-Men: First Class.

Guantanamo - American Officer Tortures Prisoners and Murders Investigator in an Iranian TV Drama, 2006 Iranian drama shown on Al-Kawthar TV and noted by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Elsewhere, Michelle Williams was named best actress (comedy or musical) for My Week with Marilyn, The Adventures of Tintin triumphed in the best animated feature category, and the harrowing Iranian drama A Separation scooped the award for best foreign language film.

The Iranian drama "A Separation" was chosen as best foreign-language film.

THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN - An Iranian drama about a poor boy who loses his sister's shoes and hides it from their father by sharing his own sneakers.

Meanwhile, the foreign-language category looks like a fight between Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live in and the Iranian drama A Separation - with the latter in pole position after its Golden Globes triumph.

Nalbandian was under the effects of European absurdist theatre and he tried to bring new ideas and methods from European drama into Iranian drama.

Sony Pictures Classics has nine films (and bought another one, an Iranian drama called "Secret Ballot," which became the festival's first acquisition).

Ms. Russo, 41, is a founder and a co-president of Zeitgeist Films, a New York distributor of art films, including "Taste of Cherry," an Iranian drama that won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

The Wall (2008 film), Iranian drama film (original title: Divaar)