'The Battleship Island' wins award in Spain's Sitges Film Festival

South Korean historical action film "The Battleship Island" has won the best feature-length film in a competition category of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, the film's local distributor said Sunday.

The movie by director Ryoo Seung-wan earned the top honor in the Orbita section for introducing most notable films of the year and honoring a title chosen by the jury composed of audiences. In the category, the Korean movie competed against such films as Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage Coda" and Taylor Sheridan's "Winder River." 

It is Ryoo's third award from the festival after "The Unjust" in 2011 and "Veteran" in 2015. 

Mike Hostench, the festival's vice chairman, cited the movie's great combination of various genres -- epic, drama and action -- as the main reason for the award, CJ Entertainment said.

This composite photo released by CJ Entertainment shows promotional posters for "The Battleship Island." (Yonhap)

The Spanish annual event, taking place in Sitges, Catalonia, is one of the world's most well-known film festivals, specializing in fantasy and horror movies. 

At this year's festival, the director's extended edition by 18 minutes was screened, with new scenes that better explain the relationships among characters in detail, the distributor said. 

"The Battleship Island" tells desperate attempts by Korean forced laborers during World War II to escape coal mines on Japan's Hashima Island. Released July 26, the movie has sold over 6.5 million tickets in South Korea. (Yonhap)