Colin Firth has won over Venice Film
Festival judges who have named him the best actor at the festival.
The prize is the second win for Tom
Ford's A Single Man, which also won the 3rd annual
Queer Lion award at the festival.
Firth stars in Ford's big screen
adaption of Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel of the same name as
professor George Falconer.
In accepting the award, the
forty-nine-year-old actor called the win “possibly the greatest
honor of my life.”
In the United States, Firth is best
know for his starring roles in Bridget Jone's Diary and last
year's musical Mamma Mia, but in his native England audiences
remember him for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the TV adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice.
In A Single Man, he plays the
ultimate outsider in 1960's Los Angeles – middle-aged, gay and
British – where he struggles on after the sudden loss of his
partner, Jim (played by Matthew Goode).
During last week's premiere, fashion
designer turned film director Ford said the film is not “about
being gay.”
“It's really a film about love and
isolation that I think all of us feel, so it is very universal,”
Ford said at a news conference. “When I see someone who sees the
film and says, 'It's a gay story,' I don't even know what they are
thinking, it just seems to me a human story.”
A Single Man is expected to
receive similar accolades as it makes its North American debut at the
Toronto International Film Festival this week.
Gay Entertainment Report is a feature
of On Top Magazine and can be reached at
ontopmag@ontopmag.com.