The academy credited Cuomo's "masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world."
The Emmy will be presented to during the academy's live awards show streaming at 11 a.m. on the academy's website on November 23.
"The governor's 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure," International Academy President and CEO Bruce Paisner said. "People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back."
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The Founder's Award is presented to an individual or organization who "crosses cultural boundaries to touch our common humanity."
Prior recipients include Vice President Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, and Steven Spielberg.
On March 2, 2020, New York Governor Cuomo conducted a media briefing from Albany to inform and educate New Yorkers and the public at large about the coronavirus outbreak that was just starting to be recognized as a massive public health threat.
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That 12-minute introduction, part of a 34-minute session with other state leaders, was the first of 111 consecutive daily briefings for New Yorkers and the wider world about the grim progress of the worst pandemic to hit the United States in a century.
The last daily briefing was held on June 19, 2020, and the daily communications reached a total of 59 million viewers.
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