TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 26th Far East Film Festival (FEFF) awarded its highest honor, the Golden Mulberry Lifetime Achievement Award, to Taiwanese film producer Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) on Monday (April 29).

Accepting the award, Chiu cited his work with Zhang Yimou’s film “To Live” to encourage audiences to put aside hatred and bring an end to war. Chiu delivered a line spoken by Gong Li in the film: "You must continue to live, as you still owe us a life!"

Chiu hoped that humankind could put aside racial hatred and seek to understand each other to eliminate war. In the film, Gong Li lost her son, and years later, she forgave her enemies and even supported them as they faced political persecution, per CNA.

To present the award to Chiu, FEFF invited Marco Muller, who selected the film "City of Sadness," produced by Chiu, which appeared at the Venice Film Festival in 1989. Mueller said that Chiu boldly supported directors with creative freedom, took on investment risks, and never feared political reprisal.

At the award presentation, Muller said, "Chiu blocked any attempts to conduct political censorship of the film and had dialogue with the director to ensure that every film was an artistic success and received international acclaim."

Arthur Chu (褚明仁), chairman of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Center, contributed an essay to the film festival program, describing Chiu as "a producer with a unique and precise vision." Chu said that when Asian film was relatively unknown to international audiences, he produced five films in 10 years, involving a new generation of directors that included Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), Zhang Yimou (張藝謀), and Johnnie To (杜琪峯).

Many of the films Chiu produced during this decade won honors at the world's three major international film festivals, including being shortlisted for the Oscars. 

FEFF is held each year in Udine, Italy and is organized by Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche. After Chiu was presented with the award, the festival hosted a screening of the Taiwanese narrative feature, “Old Fox.”