U.S. production “The Wrestler,” directed by Darren Aronofsky, claimed the top award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, impressively closing the 11-day competition on the Lido waterfront.

The film starring Mickey Rourke as Randy (the Ram) Robinson, a past his time pro-wrestler, has won the much longed for Golden Lion, after the world premiere of the movie closed the official competition of this year’s 65^th edition of the oldest film festival in the world.

German filmmaker Wim Wenders, the head of the jury, was the one to announce the winning movie, while making use of lead character’s heart disorders to go into rapture over Mickey Rourke’s work, which he described as “a truly heartbreaking performance, in the very sense of the word.”

The actor showed gratitude to the jury and cheered the director of “The Fountain” and “Requiem for a Dream” for choosing to create the production whose cast list includes Marisa Tomei, Ernest Miller and Evan Rachel Wood.

“Darren could make other kind of movies if he wanted to, make a lot of money in the United States,” Mickey Rourke said. “I love and respect him because he doesn’t compromise and he wants to make movies that are not that expensive, that have a lot of integrity,” he added.

The Silver Lion for best director was awarded to Russia’s Alexei German Jr. for “Paper Soldier,” while the best actor award was won by Italy’s Silvio Orlando for his role in “Il Papa di Giovanna” (“Giovanna’s Father"”) and the best actress prize went to Dominique Blanc in “L’Autre” (“The Other One”).