Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro will be honoured together with the Hammond Cinema Vanguard Award at the 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival, marking a rare joint tribute to three of contemporary cinema’s most influential performers. The award will be presented on Monday, February 9, in recognition of their work in One Battle After Another, the awards-season favourite written, directed and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson.
The award, recently renamed in honour of longtime SBIFF collaborators and friends Pete Hammond and Madelyn Hammond, will be moderated by Pete Hammond. The trio will be recognised for their performances alongside Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, which have helped propel the film to the forefront of the current awards race. DiCaprio stars as Bob, Penn as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw and Del Toro as Sensei Sergio St. Carlos.
One Battle After Another has emerged as the most nominated Golden Globes contender this season with nine nominations, including individual nods for DiCaprio, Penn and Del Toro. The film recently won three Critics Choice Awards, including Best Picture, and has also been named Best Picture of the Year by the Gotham Awards, the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle and several other critics’ groups.
“This is by far the most exciting tribute in SBIFF history,” said Roger Durling, executive director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “These three artists individually have regaled us with exemplary and unforgettable performances, and together, they have made one of the best films, One Battle After Another. Let’s rejoice.”
Released by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film follows Bob, a washed-up revolutionary living off the grid with his daughter Willa. When his longtime nemesis resurfaces after 16 years and Willa goes missing, Bob is forced into action as both confront the consequences of his past.
DiCaprio, an Oscar-winning actor, producer and activist, has received seven Academy Award nominations and won Best Actor for The Revenant. His career spans more than three decades and includes acclaimed performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Wolf of Wall Street, Inception and Django Unchained, along with his long-standing collaboration with Martin Scorsese. Beyond acting, he co-founded Appian Way and later helped launch Re:wild, an organisation focused on global wildlife conservation.
Penn, a two-time Academy Award winner for Mystic River and Milk, has built a career spanning over four decades as an actor and filmmaker. His work has been recognised by Cannes, Berlin and Venice, and his directing credits include Into the Wild and Flag Day. He is also the founder of CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), a disaster response organisation operating worldwide, and previously received the Modern Master Award at SBIFF in 2002.
Del Toro won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Traffic and received further acclaim for his portrayal of Che Guevara in Che, which earned him Best Actor at Cannes. His diverse filmography includes The Usual Suspects, Sicario, Inherent Vice, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Escape at Dannemora, the latter earning him an Emmy nomination.
The Cinema Vanguard Award honours actors who have forged distinctive paths through artistic risk-taking and significant contributions to film. Past recipients include Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, Benedict Cumberbatch, Carey Mulligan, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman and Ryan Gosling.
The 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival will run from 4 to 14 February.
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