U.S. director Wes Anderson, known for a film oeuvre featuring quirky, offbeat characters, is set to be honoured as a visionary by a European film festival.

Organizers of the Stockholm Film Festival announced Wednesday that Anderson will receive the festival's Visionary Award next month.

"Through his visionary filmmaking, Anderson has given a modern face to the classic auteur," festival organizers said Wednesday.

The 38-year-old writer-director has created "unique and stylized universes inhabited by characters searching for something to search for" in his films, which include The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums and Bottle Rocket.

The Stockholm Film Festival runs Nov. 15-25.

Anderson's latest, The Darjeeling Limited, opened in theatres earlier this month.

The film, set on a train travelling through India, reunited Anderson with his Rushmore star Jason Schwartzman and regular collaborator Owen Wilson.

Longtime friends Anderson and Wilson shared writing credits on the director's feature film debut, the 1996 comedy Bottle Rocket, his follow-up Rushmore and also shared a best screenplay Oscar nomination for Tenenbaums.

Wilson has also starred in or made a cameo appearance in each of Anderson's feature films.

With files from the Associated Press