Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The movie “Lebanon” by Israeli director Samuel Maoz won the top prize, the Golden Lion, at the Venice Film Festival.

The movie takes place during Israel’s first Lebanon war in 1982. It’s an autobiographical tale of four young soldiers trapped in a tank and driven to kill.

Colin Firth was voted best actor for his role as a British college professor whose male partner dies in “A Single Man,” the first-ever movie by fashion designer Tom Ford.

In the race for the top prize at the world’s oldest film festival this year was “Capitalism: A Love Story” by director Michael Moore, a criticism of free-market economics and of the U.S. taxpayer bailout of Wall Street financial institutions. It won no awards.

Iranian-born Shirin Neshat, a visual artist, won the best- director award, or Silver Lion, for her first feature “Women Without Men.” It’s the story of four Iranian women whose lives overlap during the 1953 coup that overthrew the elected prime minister and reinstated the Shah.

Ksenia Rappoport took home the best-actress award for her role as the Slovenian waitress in the Italian movie “La Doppia Ora” (“The Double Hour”), directed by Giuseppe Capotondi.

The jury was led by Ang Lee, director of “Brokeback Mountain” (2005).

To contact the reporter on the story: Farah Nayeri in London farahn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 12, 2009 14:20 EDT