Goldie Hawn to Receive George Eastman Award

The George Eastman Museum will honor actor Goldie Hawn with the George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of cinema on Tuesday, October 22. Tickets for the benefit gala go on sale to Eastman Museum members on September 17, and any remaining tickets go on sale to the public on September 24. Tickets and other information for the gala and a related series of films at the Dryden Theatre are available at eastman.org/eastmanaward2024.

The George Eastman Award was established in 1955 as the first award to recognize the enduring artistic value of the oeuvre of a film actor, director, or cinematographer. In receiving the award, Hawn joins an elite group of film artists, including Lauren Bacall, Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Cecil B. DeMille, Michael Douglas, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Keaton, Gregory Peck, Mary Pickford, Julia Roberts, Martin Scorsese, James Stewart, Meryl Streep, Gloria Swanson, and most recently, Jodie Foster.

Goldie Hawn is an Academy Award-winning actress, producer, director, best-selling author, and pioneering and passionate children’s advocate. She is the founder of The Goldie Hawn Foundation, a public charity with a mission to transform children’s lives by providing vital social and emotional learning programs to reduce stress and aggressive behavior, improve focus and academic performance, and increase resiliency for success in school and in life.

“Throughout her career, Goldie Hawn has brought a unique comic flair to motion pictures,” said Bruce Barnes, the Ron and Donna Fielding director of the George Eastman Museum. “Her screen personality in many of her films belies her savvy management of her career. We greatly admire that for more than two decades she has dedicated her efforts, intelligence, resources, and standing to improving emotional and social lives of children.”

A dancer by training, Hawn burst into American culture in 1968 with Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, an immensely popular television sketch comedy. She immediately made the transition to motion pictures and earned an Academy Award for her brilliant supporting performance in Cactus Flower (1969). Her impeccable comedic timing allowed her to parlay this success into a lengthy film career, working with some of the biggest stars and directors of the time.

Over the next decade, she co-starred with some of the leading actors of the time, including Peter Sellers in There’s A Girl in My Soup (1970); Warren Beatty in $ (1971) and Shampoo (1975); and Chevy Chase in Foul Play (1978) and Seems Like Old Times (1980). She also played the lead role in the notable films Butterflies Are Free (1972) and The Sugarland Express (1974), the first theatrical film directed by Steven Spielberg.

Hawn started a new phase in her career as a co-producer, shepherding to the screen Private Benjamin (1980), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Over the following two decades, she played lead roles in numerous films, including Swing Shift (1984), Wildcats (1986), Overboard (1987), Housesitter (1992), Death Becomes Her (1992), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and The First Wives Club (1996).

In 2003, alarmed by increases in school violence, youth depression, and suicide, and the persistent failure of the education system to help children cope with increasingly stressful lives, Hawn started The Goldie Hawn Foundation to apply scientific research to create education programs that support the social and emotional development of children. Working with leading neuroscientists, educators, psychologists and researchers, the Foundation developed MindUP, an evidence-based program and teaching model that provide tools to help children self-regulate and understand their own emotions, reduce stress and anxiety, sharpen concentration, increase empathy, and improve academic performance.

Hawn authored two best-selling books, a memoir A Lotus Grows in the Mud, in 2005, and in 2011, 10 Mindful Minutes, offering guidance on raising healthy, joyful, and resilient children.

Hawn will accept the George Eastman Award in a ceremony on Tuesday, October 22, at 8 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum. The ceremony will feature an appreciation of Hawn’s career by Peter Bagrov, senior curator, Moving Image Department; a compilation of highlights of her work; and a conversation with Hawn, to be followed by a gala in the museum.

The award ceremony and gala is open to the public. Members of the museum will have advance access to purchase tickets, beginning on Tuesday, September 17 at 10 a.m. To become a member of the George Eastman Museum, visit eastman.org/membership or call (585) 327-4833 for information. Any remaining tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 24 at 10 a.m.

Benefit Event Ticket Information
All tickets for the George Eastman Award benefit event include reserved seating for the award ceremony, admittance to the festive gala, and valet parking.

• Patron tickets: $400
• Supporter tickets: $250
• Friend tickets: $150

Visit eastman.org/eastmanaward2024 for more information and to purchase tickets.

Sponsorship
The Eastman Museum is deeply grateful to Nocon & Associates, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, the lead sponsor of the George Eastman Award events, and to presenting sponsor Pike Construction Services.

Film Series
The Dryden Theatre is screening a series of Hawn’s films leading up to and following the award ceremony. All screenings are at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, October 2
Cactus Flower (1969)
Tuesday, October 8
Swing Shift (1984)
Thursday, October 10
Overboard (1987)

About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 28,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program and, its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation’s graduate program (a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. For more information, visit eastman.org.

About the George Eastman Award
The George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of cinema was established by the Eastman Museum in 1955 to raise awareness of the imperative of the film preservation. The first two presentations of the award in 1955 and 1957, known as the Festival of Film Artists, were a tribute to the legends of the silent film era (1915–1930). Since then, the George Eastman Award has honored a range of actors, directors, and cinematographers.