Firth wins Best Actor prize in Venice

Colin Firth has been awarded the Best Actor prize at this year's Venice Film Festival, for his performance in A Single Man.

The British actor plays a gay professor struggling to cope with the death of his lover.

Israeli war film Lebanon was also awarded the festival's top prize – the Golden Lion.

The dramatic film is shot almost exclusively inside an Israeli tank during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Shirin Neshat was awarded the Best Director prize for her film Women Without Men, chronicling four Iranian women's fight for freedom and independence.

Earlier in the festival, the animation studio Pixar was handed the lifetime achievement award.