A Single Man, the directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford, has captured the Queer Golden Lion for gay-themed movies screening at the Venice Film Festival.

The Queer Golden Lion is an unofficial award and is independent of the festival.

British actor Colin Firth, with his trophy for his role in the film A Single Man. Firth portrays a gay professor mourning the death of his partner. British actor Colin Firth, with his trophy for his role in the film A Single Man. Firth portrays a gay professor mourning the death of his partner. (Andrew Medichini/Associated Press)

Starring Colin Firth as a college professor mourning the death of his partner of 16 years, the film's premiere Friday in Venice got much acclaim. Firth also nabbed an award as best actor at the festival.

Ford's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's groundbreaking 1964 novel was praised as "the formal perfection of this portrayal of a man and the dignity of his love, which reminds us of the absolute necessity of laws guaranteeing the equality of rights, so that all love can be lived openly in the light of day," said a statement by the organizers of the trophy.

The 48-year-old designer had earlier said his 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."

In the story, Firth's character, George — who loses his partner in a car accident — starts to plan his own suicide.

George "thinks it is the last day of his life, so for the first time in a long time he is seeing, and he is pulled by the beauty of life," Ford said.

"[He] has a kind of epiphany where he understands what life was about."

With files from The Associated Press