{"id":473274,"date":"2026-09-23T17:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/473274\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T17:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:46:10","slug":"oscar-winner-viola-davis-becomes-latest-film-fest-gregory-peck-award-honoree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/473274\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar winner Viola Davis becomes latest Film Fest Gregory Peck Award honoree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making plans for the fall? Let us help. In our fall arts guide<\/a>, we preview the best plays, concerts, fests and more coming to San Diego. Look for a roundup of the best in music, theater and festivals, with a spotlight feature in each category.<\/p>\n

Viola Davis, one of the more acclaimed\u00a0American\u00a0actors of the past\u00a020 years,\u00a0is a woman of many titles: author, activist,\u00a0producer,\u00a0philanthropist and more.<\/p>\n

And on\u00a0the opening night of\u00a0this year\u2019s\u00a0San Diego International Film Festival<\/a>, she\u2019ll add another title to her resume:\u00a0Gregory Peck Award\u00a0winner.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Actress Viola Davis. (Photo courtesy of the San Diego International Film Festival)<\/p>\n

Davis\u00a0has been named the 2026\u00a0recipient of the Gregory Peck Award for Cinematic Excellence,\u00a0joining a\u00a0list of acclaimed\u00a0past recipients\u00a0that includes\u00a0Alan Arkin\u00a0(2014),\u00a0Sir Patrick Stewart\u00a0(2017), Annette Bening\u00a0(2016), who was raised in San Diego,\u00a0and\u00a0more.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s\u00a0the first African American woman to\u00a0receive the award\u00a0since it was originally handed out in 2008,\u00a0and\u00a0just\u00a0the fourth woman.\u00a0She\u2019ll receive the award\u00a0during the festival\u2019s\u00a0\u201cNight of the Stars<\/a>\u201d tribute in La Jolla.<\/p>\n

Film festival co-founder and CEO\u00a0Tonya Mantooth\u00a0said that Davis\u00a0was chosen\u00a0for the\u00a0award\u00a0as much for her offscreen work as her onscreen\u00a0roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cCecilia Peck, who is Gregory Peck\u2019s daughter,\u00a0sits\u00a0on\u00a0my board of directors\u00a0and because of that,\u00a0we\u2019re able to give and present the Gregory Peck Award,\u201d Mantooth explained.\u00a0\u201cAnd what\u00a0(the board)\u00a0looks\u00a0for are two things:\u00a0one is the body of work they feel like represents the kind of range that\u00a0(Peck)\u00a0had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut equally, it\u2019s how much of\u00a0a\u00a0humanitarian are they,\u201d she\u00a0added. \u201cHow have they given back in their life? And how have they gone to serve those who are underserved? Because that was a big piece for Gregory Peck,\u201d she said of the Hollywood Golden Era star \u2013 also a La Jolla native \u2013 perhaps remembered most fondly for his turn as Atticus Finch in the classic \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Viola Davis, Mantooth noted, is \u201can EGOT<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Emmy, Grammy, Oscar\u00a0and\u00a0Tony\u00a0(winner)\u00a0\u2013 her\u00a0body of work is extraordinary.\u201d (She won her Oscar in 2017 for \u201cFences,\u201d for which she earlier received a Tony in 2010.)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you turn around and you look what she\u2019s given back in terms of philanthropy,\u201d Mantooth continued. \u201cShe started a foundation to help fight\u00a0hunger for children as well as\u00a0fighting domestic abuse.\u00a0Her give-back to the world is as equal as what she gives to us on the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNight of the Stars\u201d tribute at the San Diego International Film Festival, with honoree Viola Davis, 7 p.m. Oct. 13,\u00a0Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Making plans for the fall? Let us help. In our fall arts guide, we preview the best plays,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[185031,74,76,10513,75],"class_list":["post-473274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-fall-arts-guide","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-international-film-festival","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}