After so many years of being both in front of and behind the camera for Law & Order: SVU, the beloved actress made the difficult and complicated decision to expand her talents for her first feature-length effort, a touching documentary about her mom, Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield. Now, years later, her hard work has culminated in her very first Emmy Award win as a director, just a week before she’s set to host the Primetime Emmys telecast.My Mom Jayne made its world premiere at Cannes in May 2025, and received a limited theatrical run ahead of its linear premiere in June on HBO and its streaming debut via HBO Max subscription. The doc explores Hargitay’s relationship, or lack thereof, with a mom she never really had a chance to know — Mansfield died in a 1967 car collision when Hargitay was just three years old — and it was clearly powerful enough to win over Emmy voters. She won not just one, but two total Emmys for My Mom Jayne, beating out the competition for both Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special and Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program. She reflected on the momentous occasion on Instagram with a two-word summary:This happened...I'm assuming her hypothetical tone there wasn't imbued with Ryan Reynolds-level snark, but is instead more of a disbelief-stricken reaction that she would not have expected to be reflective on earlier in the evening. That's what the picture used in the post makes it seem like to me, anyway, given how purely joyful Mariska Hargitay looks while double-fisting her trophies. A post shared by Mariska (@therealmariskahargitay)A photo posted by For the Outstanding Documentary category, My Mom Jayne won out over several high-profile docs, including John Candy: I Like Me, Marty, Life Is Short, Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! and Ocean with David Attenborough. She also beat out directors such as Lawrence Kasdan for Marty, Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio for Mel Brooks, Alexandria Stapleton for Sean Combs: The Reckoning and Rebecca Miller for Mr. Scorcese. Taking the stage for directing, Hargitay was visibly grateful and taken aback by the win, and reflected on the long journey to even getting to a place where she felt comfortable being the one to spearhead it. As she put it:I’m utterly overwhelmed. I just wanted to share with you that it took me a while when I decided to make this film during the pandemic. It took me a while to realize that this was my story to tell. I could direct it.Upon receiving the award for Outstanding Documentary, Hargitay shared melancholic appreciation for feminism icon Gloria Steinem (who passed away at 92 on September 2), saying:My hero and friend Gloria Steinem recently said, ‘Please tell your own story.' The most important thing we can do for each other is to know each other through stories. I got to know my mother through telling the story. It’s a gift that’s indescribable.Hargitay has spoken in the past year about the difficulties she faced within her own family while trying to put the documentary together, with certain relatives being more skeptical than others about it overall. That said, it appears that cooler heads prevailed and all involved were agreeable enough to speak for the doc. So if that can be a form of inspiration for other potential filmmakers out there who want to tell their own stories, Hargitay wants that message spread far and wide. She spoke to that during her directing award speech, saying:I just want that invitation to go out, especially to women. I’m so excited to explore and discover and innovate new ways of telling stories from half of the earth’s population because we don’t hear from you enough. I can’t wait to get to know you.Now that Mariska Hargitay is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, it adds a bit more fuel to worries that she may exit Law & Order: SVU at some point soon, especially given her own comments about retirement. Oh, and not to mention her big Broadway debut that also played out earlier in 2026. But for now, Olivia Benson is back as the boss in Season 28, but whether or not Christopher Meloni's Stabler returns is another story. With Hargitay front and center as its hot, the televised 78th annual Primetime Emmy Awards are set to unveil all of the big winners on NBC (and streaming via Peacock subscription) on Monday, September 14, at 8:00 p.m. ET.