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Viola Davis, one of the more acclaimed American actors of the past 20 years, is a woman of many titles: author, activist, producer, philanthropist and more.
And on the opening night of this year’s San Diego International Film Festival, she’ll add another title to her resume: Gregory Peck Award winner.
Davis has been named the 2026 recipient of the Gregory Peck Award for Cinematic Excellence, joining a list of acclaimed past recipients that includes Alan Arkin (2014), Sir Patrick Stewart (2017), Annette Bening (2016), who was raised in San Diego, and more.
She’s the first African American woman to receive the award since it was originally handed out in 2008, and just the fourth woman. She’ll receive the award during the festival’s “Night of the Stars” tribute in La Jolla.
Film festival co-founder and CEO Tonya Mantooth said that Davis was chosen for the award as much for her offscreen work as her onscreen roles.
“Cecilia Peck, who is Gregory Peck’s daughter, sits on my board of directors and because of that, we’re able to give and present the Gregory Peck Award,” Mantooth explained. “And what (the board) looks for are two things: one is the body of work they feel like represents the kind of range that (Peck) had.”
“But equally, it’s how much of a humanitarian are they,” she added. “How 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,” she said of the Hollywood Golden Era star – also a La Jolla native – perhaps remembered most fondly for his turn as Atticus Finch in the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
And Viola Davis, Mantooth noted, is “an EGOT – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (winner) – her body of work is extraordinary.” (She won her Oscar in 2017 for “Fences,” for which she earlier received a Tony in 2010.)
“And then you turn around and you look what she’s given back in terms of philanthropy,” Mantooth continued. “She started a foundation to help fight hunger for children as well as fighting domestic abuse. Her give-back to the world is as equal as what she gives to us on the screen.”
“Night of the Stars” tribute at the San Diego International Film Festival, with honoree Viola Davis, 7 p.m. Oct. 13, Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla.
