Leonardo DiCaprio to Receive Desert Palm Acting Award from Palm Springs International Film Awards for ‘One Battle After Another’
The Palm Springs International Film Awards has announced that Leonardo DiCaprio is the recipient of the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, for his performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. The Film Awards will take place on January 3, 2026, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running January 2-12, 2026. The event will be presented by Kering and sponsored by Entertainment Tonight.
“In One Battle After Another, Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a riveting and emotionally charged performance, embodying a man pushed to his breaking point in the face of relentless adversity,” said Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi. “Across his career, DiCaprio has continually redefined what is possible in screen acting—bringing emotional depth, artistic integrity, and fearless commitment to every role. It is our honor to present him with the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, in recognition of his enduring influence and exceptional body of work.”
DiCaprio joins this year’s previously announced honorees Michael B. Jordan (Icon Award), Adam Sandler (Chairman’s Award) and Sentimental Value cast members Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning (International Star Award). Past actor recipients of the Desert Palm Achievement Award include Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Adam Driver (Marriage Story), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick… Boom!), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Gary Oldman (Mank), Sean Penn (Milk), Brad Pitt (Moneyball) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything). In the years they were honored, Bridges, Brody, Day-Lewis, McConaughey, Murphy, Oldman, Penn and Redmayne went on to win the Academy Award® for Best Actor, while Ahmed, Cooper, Driver, Garfield, Farrell, Firth and Pitt received Best Actor Oscar® nominations.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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