MONTREAL– Denise Robert has been selected as Playback‘s Producer of the Year for 2009, applauding this year’s box-office smash De père en flic and her body of work, including the Oscar-winning feature The Barbarian Invasions.

‘Winning makes me very nervous,’ laughs Robert over breakfast at the industry hot spot in Montreal, Le Sofitel.

‘I’m very touched by this, but I’m more comfortable when the spotlight is not directly on me,’ says Robert like a true behind-the-scenes master, adding a French twist: ‘In Quebec we always feel we don’t deserve anything or that we have to work harder to deserve it. I feel like saying, ‘Oh sorry, there’s been a mistake.”

It’s been a banner year for Robert and her business partners at Montreal’s Cinémaginaire as their latest film — the rousing comedy Père, from director Émile Gaudreault– has rung in nearly $11 million at the Quebec box office alone for distributor Alliance Vivafilm, out-muscling U.S. blockbusters on its own turf. The film — now 2009’s top-grossing homegrown film in Canada — is hot on the heels of the highest-grossing Canuck film of all time, fellow cop comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop, which generated $12 million in 2006.

Robert’s production shingle Cinémaginaire — founded in 1988 with partner Daniel Louis — has spawned more than 30 award-winning films to date, including Le Confessionnal (1995), Nuit de noces (2001), box-office hit Mambo Italiano (2003), and The Barbarian Invasions. (2003)

Robert will be the focus of a special report in the Nov. 23 issue of Playback.

Previous Producers of the Year include Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos of Flashpoint, and Bon Cop, Bad Cop‘s Kevin Tierney.

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This story has been corrected. Cinémaginaire did not produce J’ai tué ma mère as previously indicated.