Alan Alda to Receive Dick Cavett Award at HIFF 2018

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Created and presented by HIFF co-chairman Alec Baldwin in 2017 in honor of Cavett himself, The Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award recognizes a lifelong advocate for artistic achievements and contributions to the industry.

The 2018 recipient will be Academy Award®-nominated and Golden Globe®-winning actor Alan Alda. Alda will be lauded during a special presentation on Opening Night.

“Alan Alda is one of those now rare actors who in his career continues to outdo himself on Broadway, in films and on television,” said HIFF Co-Chairman Alec Baldwin. “Of course, most people remember Alda for his starring role in the seminal TV series M*A*S*H, but Alda is also great in the movies and on stage.”

Seven-time Emmy® Award winner Alan Alda played Hawkeye Pierce and wrote many of the episodes on the classic TV series M*A*S*H, and appeared in continuing roles on ER, The West Wing, 30 Rock, The Blacklist, The Big C, Horace and Pete, and The Good Fight.

He was nominated for an Academy Award® for his role in THE AVIATOR. Alda’s other films include BRIDGE OF SPIES, TOWER HEIST, WANDERLUST, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY, AND THE BAND PLAYED ON, SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR and CALIFORNIA SUITE, as well as THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN, which he wrote, and THE FOUR SEASONS, SWEET LIBERTY, A NEW LIFE and BETSY’S WEDDING, all of which he wrote and directed.

On Broadway, he received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross, Jake’s Women, and The Apple Tree.

For 11 years on PBS, Alda has hosted the award-winning series Scientific American Frontiers; he also hosted the miniseries The Human Spark and Brains on Trial. His playwriting credits include Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie and Dear Albert.

Alda is on the Board of the World Science Festival; a visiting professor at Stony Brook University’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, which he helped found; and Founder + CEO of the Alda Communication Training Company. In addition to his successful podcast Clear + Vivid with Alan Alda, he has written three New York Times bestsellers, including If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? – My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating.

Alda will receive the Award on Opening Night at Guild Hall, which also features Maggie Gyllenhaal in Sara Colangelo’s THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. Opening Night ticket packages are sale now. 

This event is supported by Riki Kane Larimer.


Browse the 2018 Film Guide. Join us for HIFF 2018 over Columbus Day Weekend: October 4-8! Founder Passes, Patron Packages, and Ticket packages are now on sale. Individual tickets will go on sale Monday, September 24.

HIFF greatly appreciates the support from our corporate sponsors and media partners, including premiere sponsors Audi and Out East, lead sponsors Delta Air Lines, Altour International, and Netflix, and official media partners WNBC New York and Variety.