30th Hamptons International Film Festival to honor Mariska Hargitay with Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award

Festival will have World Premiere screenings of JANUARY 6TH, PINBALL – THE MAN WHO SAVED THE GAME, A RADICAL LIFE, WHO INVITED CHARLIE? and Rory Kennedy’s THE VOLCANO: RESCUE FROM WHAKAARI

The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) announced today 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.”

As part of this year’s programming the Hamptons International Film Festival will host the the world premiere screenings of five films, including the locally shot WHO INVITED CHARLIE?, directed by Xavier Manrique, screening as both a Spotlight selection and as part of the Signature Program Views from Long Island section, supported by Suffolk County Film Commission. The feature, which was shot out East, stars Jordana Brewster, Adam Pally, and Reid Scott, and follows a family hiding out in the Hamptons as their bubble is popped when a Bloody Mary-swilling, pot-smoking ‘Charlie’ from their past shows up seeking refuge. Additional world premieres at this year’s festival include discovery+’s JANUARY 6TH, directed by Jules and Gédéon Naudet and screening as part of the World Cinema Documentary section, which examines January 6th from the unique perspective of the heroes, first responders, and survivors of the attack as they reveal their first-hand experience of the stand; World Cinema Narrative selection PINBALL – THE MAN WHO SAVED THE GAME, directed by Austin and Meredith Bragg and starring Mike Faist, Crystal Reed, and Dennis Boutsikaris, which follows an unsettled writer and his journey to save the game of pinball while also facing life’s challenges; discovery+’s A RADICAL LIFE, directed by Ricki Stern and screening as part of the Films of Conflict & Resolution section, which takes an unfiltered look at the former First Lady of ISIS, Tania Joya, who for 12 years was married to John Georgelas, the highest ranking American in ISIS; as well as World Cinema Documentary selection THE VOLCANO: RESCUE FROM WHAKAARI, directed by Rory Kennedy and distributed by Netflix, which shares a minute-by-minute account of unsuspecting tourists caught in a tragic volcanic eruption while sightseeing on an island off New Zealand in 2019, and celebrates the survivors, as well as the everyday people who courageously came to their rescue.

“It is with great enthusiasm that we are able to once again welcome our film-loving community back to our theaters out East for the 30th anniversary of the festival,” said David Nugent, HamptonsFilm Artistic Director. “With a diverse and robust selection of narrative and documentary films, we are excited to share unique, thrilling stories from this year’s talented filmmakers. We feel so proud to play host to a number of World Premiere screenings, and are honored that these brilliant storytellers have chosen to screen their films for audiences for the first time here at HIFF.”

The festival also announced the first group of narrative and documentary films that will screen as part of the World Cinema sections. In the World Cinema Narrative section, HIFF will screen MUBI’s DECISION TO LEAVE, directed by HIFF alum Park Chan-wook, about a detective investigating a man’s mysterious death in the mountains who finds himself emotionally entwined with the man’s suspicious widow; as well as the previously mentioned PINBALL – THE MAN WHO SAVED THE GAME. The World Cinema Documentary section will feature DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY AND THE LEGEND OF MIDNIGHT COWBOY, directed by Nancy Buirski, which tells the unlikely story of MIDNIGHT COWBOY, a film that captured the zeitgeist of the country and connected with American audiences despite a host of obstacles, due to the unwavering vision of its director; Prime Video’s GOOD NIGHT OPPY, directed by Ryan White, which revisits Opportunity, the Mars rover sent to Mars on a 90-day mission, that subsequently captivated the world by surviving 15 years and sending back invaluable images and information about the red planet; as well as the previously mentioned JANUARY 6TH and THE VOLCANO: RESCUE FROM WHAKAARI.

Additional programming includes the Spotlight feature CALL JANE, directed by Phyllis Nagy and distributed by Roadside Attractions. This film follows the story of a brave group of women who ran an underground abortion clinic before the passage of Roe vs. Wade, when women’s reproductive rights were severely restricted. In this year’s Signature Programs, the festival will host Cannes Jury Prize winner EO, distributed by Sideshow and Janus Films, in the Compassion, Justice & Animal Rights section, which is directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and follows a donkey exploring a vision of modern Europe, experiencing joy and pain as he encounters good and bad people along his journey; as well as the previously mentioned A RADICAL LIFE in the Films of Conflict & Resolution section. These distinctive programs are unique to the Hamptons International Film Festival, and bring diverse, thoughtful entertainment to the East End. Additional programming will be announced in the coming weeks.

Passes and packages will be on sale after Labor Day, beginning September 6, 2022. Additionally, a weeklong special Founder Pass sale will take place from August 29 through September 5, 2022.

The 30th Annual Hamptons Film Festival will run as an extended 10-day event from October 7-16, 2022. HIFF thanks the supporters for this year’s festival, including returning Premiere Sponsor Audi; Signature Sponsors Netflix, Silvercup Studios, Variety, and Gibson Dunn; and Supporting Sponsor Regal Cinemas; as well as new Signature Sponsor The Macallan; Supporting Sponsors Crystal Head Vodka and Dragon Hemp; official Media Sponsors WNBC, The East Hampton Star, The Purist, WNET, Long Island Broadcast Radio EHM, 101.7 The Beach, and 102.5 BAZ; and long term support from New York State Council on the Arts, and Suffolk County Film Commission. For more information, please visit www.hamptonsfilmfest.org.