Actress Kim Hye-ja will receive the first artist award established by the Shin Young-kyun Arts and Culture Foundation for her work on screen as well as charity activities, the foundation said Tuesday.

Kim, the heroine of director Bong Joon-ho’s crime film “Mother,” will be the first winner of the “Beautiful Artist Award” established by the foundation this year.

The Shin Young-kyun foundation was set up in October last year, based on a donation made by the veteran actor and former legislator Shin. Since then, the foundation has been working on various scholarship and support programs for filmmakers and their children.

Kim, 70, was selected as the winner based not just on her work on screen, but more on her charity and volunteer activities in Ethiopia and other underdeveloped countries over the past decade, the foundation said in a press statement.

Kim has been serving as the amity ambassador for World Vision since 1991.

Kim, often dubbed “the mother of Korea” for the many caring mothers she has played during her decades-long career, changed her image through her role of a neurotic mom in “Mother.”

She was named the best actress by the Los Angeles Critics Association, an influential group of American film critics, last year, after also bagging the best actress award at the 2009 Asian Pacific Screen Awards in Queensland, Australia. She was honored with the same title at the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival the same year.

The award ceremony will be held at the Press Center in Seoul on Dec. 26.

By Shin Hae-in (hayney@heraldcorp.com)