STOCKHOLM - American actress Susan Sarandon was on Saturday honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Stockholm film festival.

"The roles Susan Sarandon has played often gain a life of their own beyond the films themselves," said Swedish actor Gustaf Hammarsten, presenting the award to Sarandon who won an Academy Award in 1995 for her role as a nun counselling a death row prisoner in "Dead Man Walking."

"Reflection, seduction and rebellion animate her characters and seem to be the key tools in her actor's repertoire," he added.

Sarandon accepted the prize, a 7.3 kilo (15 pound) bronze horse -- the heaviest of all film awards, according to organisers -- following an interview and audience discussion at a theatre in central Stockholm.

The actress, 63, said she hoped the prize "would be my mid-life award," she joked with the crowd.

"I am very happy that I'm still working, that I'm able to get jobs when a lot of people that I started out with are no longer working. I still have a really good time, and as long as that continues I'll continue to do it," Sarandon said.

She told the audience she had always seen herself as a character actor, and sought to make films "that encourage people to be the protagonists in their own lives."

Following the discussion, Sarandon presented a 1975 screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which she starred, on a screen made out of ice in a city square.

Sarandon was also nominated for an Academy Award four times, including for "Thelma and Louise" (1991) and "The Client" (1994).