The Cannes film festival isn't typically associated with video games, but this year it's playing host to an unusual collaboration. Lili is a co-production between the New York-based game studio iNK Stories (creator of 1979 Revolution: Black Friday, about a photojournalist in Iran) and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and it's been turning heads with its eye-catching translocation of Macbeth to modern-day Iran. "It's been such an incredible coup to have it as the first video game experience at Cannes," says iNK Stories co-founder Vassiliki Khonsari. "People have gone in saying, I'm not familiar playing games, so I may just try it out for five minutes. The Cannes festival's Immersive Competition began in 2024, although the lineup doesn't usually feature traditional video games. "VR films and projection mapping is the thrust of it," says iNK Stories' other co-founder, Vassiliki's husband Navid Khonsari. But Lili weaves live-action footage with video game mechanics in a similar way to a game such as Telling Lies or Immortality. Its lead, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, won best actress at Cannes three years ago. Lili focuses on the story of Lady Macbeth, here cast as the ambitious wife of an upwardly mobile officer in the Basij (a paramilitary volunteer militia within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran). As in the play, she plots a murder to secure her husband's rise. "I think that the narrative of Lady Macbeth is that she's manipulative, and that's exactly what got us interested," says Navid. "The social limitations based on her gender forced her to try to attain whatever leadership role she can," he continues. "If she was a man, she would have been one of the greatest kings that country would have ever experienced, but because she was a woman she had to work within the structure that was there for her.

Ahmed Elgoni felt like he'd struck gold. The 24-year-old video game developer from South Africa had in November secured a ticket to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco -- a cultural mecca for anyone who wants to make video games. A sponsor would cover the cost of his round-trip flight from Cape Town. Just two weeks ago, he received his visa to enter the U.S. Then President Trump signed an executive order banning refugees and travelers from seven countries. Elgoni grew up in South Africa, but he was born in Sudan -- one of the countries listed as part of the travel ban. As a dual citizen, he now doesn't know if he can attend GDC, which runs from Feb. 27 to March 3. "No one's sure of what's happening," he said.

When Bob Dylan won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, it shocked the humanitarian world. What's more, Dylan himself hasn't behaved like a traditional Nobel winner: he hasn't commented on the honor and has yet to give an acceptance speech. At least one member of the Nobel panel has called Dylan's silence "rude and arrogant," and the public has been reminded that if he doesn't give a lecture within six months, he won't receive the $900,000 prize money. Selecting Dylan as a Nobel laureate may be contentious, but it's mostly a sign of growth for intellectual society -- at least in Literature, no one is off-limits, not even mumbling masters of wordplay and songwriting. Growing pains are expected as the world of mainstream politics, activism and academia is suddenly forced to consider the potential of new industries, and vice versa.

Navid Khonsari wants to make honest video games. Not just games that say something about the world, but games that draw on real events and bring a documentary approach to an interactive experience. "The 1979 Iranian Revolution is a defining moment in the twentieth century," he says. "The rifts it started define what the Middle East is now and what the West is. The moral decisions: who do you protect, who don't you protect?"

The Iranian regime has banned the sale of a video-game that gives players a first-person perspective of the 1979 Iranian revolution. "1979 Revolution: Black Friday", which was created by an Iranian-born game designer and his wife and released back in April to acclaim for its historically accurate depiction of the Iranian revolution, has been banned by officials in Tehran for being "Anti-Iranian" and "pro-American propaganda." Navid Khonsari -- a former Rockstar Games designer who helped develop the popular "Grand Theft Auto" series says they will look for another way to get the games to the masses. Officials in Tehran claim that the game is "anti-Iranian" and "pro-American propaganda." We are trying to combat the censorship," Khonsari tells FoxNews.com. We tried to portray a truthful account of what happened."

An Iranian-born video-game designer wants players to relive history with a new game that gives users a first-person perspective on the 1979 Iranian revolution. "1979 Revolution: Black Friday" lets gamers experience the tumultuous events through the eyes of a photojournalist who is watching his country unravel. Released Tuesday by indie game designer iNK Stories, the game has garned acclaim for its accurate depiction of the revolution. The lead on the project, Navid Khonsari -- a former Rockstar Games designer who helped developed the popular "Grand Theft Auto" series – says he wanted to create a game that is not only historically accurate but could also lead to a new genre of video games. The game offers multiple scenarios based on the revolution, but does not include the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.