The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) announced that Emmy Award-winning actress Mariska Hargitay will be honored with the 2022 Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award at the 30th anniversary of the festival. The festival also announced a handful of World Premieres, selections from the World Cinema Narrative and Documentary sections, and additional Signature Programming for this year’s edition. HIFF will run as an expanded 10-day festival from October 7 through October 16, 2022, as a live and in-person event.
The Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award was created in 2017 by Hamptons Film Chairman Emeritus Alec Baldwin. This award honors those in the creative arts who not only excel in their field, but who also support the arts and artists in other fields, such as education, related media, and other arts disciplines. Hargitay is best known for her role as Captain Olivia Benson in NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama in 2006. In addition to her decades-long career as an actor, Mariska Hargitay is a fierce advocate and activist. In 2004, Hargitay founded the Joyful Heart Foundation, a nationwide non-profit, to support and advocate for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. Joyful Heart’s array of programming has included initiatives to support the mental health needs of trauma professionals, engage male survivors, and bring awareness and reform to the nationwide rape kit backlog. Earlier this year, Joyful Heart deployed EndtheBacklog.org, the first-of-its-kind web resource to track state by state rape kit numbers and backlog reform status.
In 2017, Hargitay executive-produced I AM EVIDENCE, an Emmy-winning documentary feature on the rape kit backlog, which screened at the 25th Hamptons International Film Festival. The film tells the stories of survivors whose rape kits remained untested for years, as well as the law enforcement officials leading the charge to pursue long-awaited justice in these cases. Joyful Heart was the social action campaign partner for the film. Hargitay also co-produced EMMANUEL, about the murder of nine churchgoers at Emanuel AME Church in 2015, and executive produced MY BEAUTIFUL STUTTER, about the attendees at Camp SAY, a summer camp for youth who stutter.
Hargitay has been honored with many awards for her advocacy, including the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault Special Ally Award, the Good Sister Award for Advocacy at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Manhattan’s “100 Women Against Child Abuse,” and a Muse Award from New York Women in Film and Television. Most recently, she was named a Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine.
Previous recipients of the Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award include Cavett, Alan Alda, and Toni Ross, all incredible humanitarians and arts advocates.
“We are so thrilled to be able to honor Mariska Hargitay at this year’s anniversary,” said HamptonsFilm Executive Director Anne Chaisson. “A role model for many across the globe for her acting career and her championing of causes around domestic violence, Mariska embodies everything the Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award was created to represent. She is also a huge supporter of local Hamptons causes and we are lucky to have her as part of our community.”
For more information, please visit www.hamptonsfilmfest.org.
