Peter Jackson and Kevin Bacon among stars at Sitges Film Festival

Peter Jackson, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Na Hong-jin have been among the international names at the Sitges Film Festival in recent days, receiving awards and presenting new work in Catalonia at one of Europe's leading showcases for fantasy and horror cinema.

Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, received the festival's Grand Honorary Award on Saturday.

He also presented an early version of a new 4K restoration of Braindead, the 1992 horror comedy that he brought to Sitges on his first visit to the festival 34 years ago.

"My favourite film of all time is the 1933 King Kong, and my favourite film festival of all time is the Sitges Film Festival," Jackson said after receiving the award, which features a statuette of King Kong.

He also made a surprise appearance at the festival's annual Zombie Walk before the ceremony.

Family Movie

Bacon and Sedgwick received the same honorary award on Saturday and presented Family Movie, a horror comedy they directed and star in alongside their children, Sosie and Travis Bacon.

The film follows a family of low-budget horror filmmakers whose latest production is thrown into turmoil when a corpse appears on set.

Bacon, whose horror career began with Friday the 13th in 1980, welcomed the genre's growing recognition in the film industry.

"Nowadays, horror movies are going all the way to the Oscars, so I'm really happy about that," he said, praising festivals such as Sitges for taking the genre seriously.

Time Machine Award

On Monday, South Korean director Na Hong-jin received the festival’s Time Machine Award and presented his latest film, Hope, a thriller featuring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Hoyeon.

"I'm very happy to be at this festival, which is my favourite festival of all, and to see this audience again, which is the best audience of all," he said.

Na added that all his films had screened at Sitges and that this was his third visit in 15 years. He won the festival's best director award in 2011 for The Yellow Sea.

Chilean-Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar was also honoured on Sunday, receiving the Méliès Career Award and presenting a restored version of his 1996 thriller Thesis, marking its 30th anniversary. He said he hoped to bring his next mystery film to Sitges.

The festival, now in its 59th edition, runs until October 18.