A producer who has helped revolutionize Taiwan's film industry, Lee Lieh has a wealth of experience working on either side of the camera. Here she is, camera in hand, doing location scouting for the filming of Jump Ashin!. (courtesy of Activator Marketing)

Even though 2011 has yet to run its course, the media has already begun trumpeting the domestic film industry's likely eclipse of NT$1.5 billion in box-office gross receipts. As films like The Killer Who Never Kills, Jump Ashin!, You Are the Apple of My Eye, and Seediq Bale shattered all previous records, the beaming countenances of Wei Te-sheng, Lee Lieh, and Giddens Ko have been plastered across all the headlines. In Taiwanese cinema over the years all of the industry accolades and media attention have been generally reserved for directors, but Lee Lieh in her role as producer constitutes a unique exception.

Fresh off of her recognition as Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year at last year's Golden Horse Awards, this year Lee Lieh added a Presidential Culture Award for Innovation to her formidable resume. Just how did a film producer manage to pull off such amazing back-to-back wins?

The General Association of Chinese Culture, which sponsors the Presidential Culture Awards, adduced the following explanation for their decision: "Lee Lieh has established a new operational paradigm for a Taiwanese cinema that had remained essentially static for decades. She doesn't rely exclusively on government funding, emphasizing instead her own innovative and creative operational strategies to breathe new life into Taiwan commercial film. In Monga she successfully implemented a modular approach to production reminiscent of entrepreneurial management, shattering in the process the haphazard production that dominated in decades past. Orz Boyz (2008), Monga (2010), and Jump Ashin! (2011) are three films that, while differing widely from one another in terms of content, all testify to Lee's unique capabilities."