Director Lynch famous for his surreal style

A retrospective of his works was shown after he received the award at the Stockholm International Film Festival.

He said the inspiration for his offbeat and often surreal films, such as Blue Velvet and Eraserhead, often came from a single "seed" of an idea.

Fans then met the director before a sell-out screening of eight episodes of cult TV series Twin Peaks on Friday.

"When you fall in love with an idea... it tells you exactly what to do. And all you do is translate it into a different medium," the director said about his film-making.

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"I like it when people analyse my films. It's a subjective thing, so all interpretations are fine," he said.

The director, whose last film was the dark thriller Mulholland Drive, said he wanted to work on an a serial on the internet, but was still looking for finance.

Lynch also criticised US president George W Bush, saying he was concentrating too much on terrorism when there were other world problems such as poverty. The director is well-known as an advocate for world peace.

Lynch was recently voted the most important contemporary director in the world in a poll by the Guardian newspaper in Britain.

"Nobody makes films like David Lynch," the paper's film critics said.