(L to R): Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Paul Thomas Anderson standing on the Arlington Theatre stage. (Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus)
Film legends and “One Battle After Another” co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro were honored with the Hammond Cinema Vanguard Award for their unmatched achievements and contributions to film. “One Battle After Another” director Paul Thomas Anderson surprised attendees, presenting the award to the three actors.
All three honorees are currently nominated at the upcoming Academy Awards for their performances in “One Battle After Another” (DiCaprio for Best Actor, Penn and del Toro for Best Supporting Actor), which is a favorite to win Best Picture.
The Feb. 9 event marked the last stop for the “One Battle After Another” press tour and a victory lap for both the actors and the film. Before the night kicked off, DiCaprio, Penn and del Toro hit the Arlington Theatre red carpet, greeting fans who had been waiting for over three hours for a chance to see the stars.
Once inside, Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) Executive Director Roger Durling opened the evening by delivering a few words about the honorees, commenting on the monumental nature of all three actors being at SBIFF.
“This is by far the biggest night in the history of the film festival,” Durling said.
Durling then introduced event moderator, Deadline film critic and awards analyst Pete Hammond, who the award was renamed after in 2025.
Hammond took to the podium to talk briefly about the careers and contributions of DiCaprio, Penn and del Toro to the film industry.
“It’s truly a tribute to three cinema icons, once again working at the top of their game,” Hammond said.
After a montage highlighting the exceptional filmography of the three stars, Hammond welcomed them to the stage. The packed Arlington Theatre audience greeted them with applause, cheers and a standing ovation.
DiCaprio, Penn and del Toro discussing their careers. (Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus)
The conversation flowed as the award recipients discussed their shared history in Hollywood, from shared films to missed connections.
Discussing the impact of their film, Penn described the importance of a captivating and engaging theater experience.
“Watching [the audience’s] bodies be partnered with the film, we have to try harder to earn that,” he said. Based on its critical acclaim, it is no doubt “One Battle After Another” did just that.
Hammond took a more focused look at each actor’s career, presenting individual montages and allowing their individual work to bask in the spotlight alone.
DiCaprio’s montage featured one of his earliest film roles from his teenage years, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” a performance that earned him his first Academy Award nomination in the Supporting Actor category in 1994.
When talking about that role, DiCaprio reflected on his early years in acting.
“I fell in love with movies. And I said to myself, ‘God, I want to somehow stand on the shoulders of these giants, these people that I look up to, [James] Cagney and [James] Dean … guys like Sean [Penn] here,’” he said, gesturing to Penn sitting next to him.
DiCaprio also took time to credit the directors he’s worked with throughout his career. DiCaprio is a six-time collaborator of famed filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
“It’s been an incredible learning process for me to just absorb [Scorsese’s] knowledge of not only cinema history, but how he interprets it,” he said. “He lives and breathes cinema. And to see how he takes all of that knowledge and infuses it into his own art form has just been incredible to watch.”
In addition to Scorsese, the actor is known for his projects with other big-name directors, including James Cameron (“Titanic”), Quentin Tarantino (“Django Unchained,” “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood”), Steven Spielberg (“Catch Me If You Can”) and Christopher Nolan (“Inception”).
“[To have] been given these opportunities and to be able to work with these guys, it’s just changed my life,” DiCaprio said.
The conversation turned to del Toro’s monumental career, full of unparalleled acting. Discussing his Academy Award-winning performance in “Traffic,” del Toro added, “It was the first time I ever acted in Spanish, I never acted in Puerto Rico.”
The audience burst into cheers when the actor mentioned his birthplace, only a night after Bad Bunny’s celebratory Super Bowl halftime performance.
Del Toro discussed his work in the Penn-directed film, “The Pledge,” calling it “a treat for any fan, and I’m a fan.”. On his own character, he added, “[It was] one of the biggest arcs of a character in the shortest amount of time … it’s epic.”
When it came Penn’s time to receive the spotlight, he turned the attention away from himself and onto the screenplays for the films.
“Getting wonderful writing is still the best gift [actors] can get,” Penn said of working in film.
“I don’t want to go to a film festival and watch a scene with Sean Penn,” he added. “But I can watch and listen to really good writing.”
Penn and del Toro posing together on the SBIFF red carpet. (Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus)
Penn has been a mainstay of Hollywood and his range is in no small part a factor. The conversation turned to one of his earliest roles in 1982’s “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” in which he plays Jeff Spicoli, a stoner and surfer turned cultural icon.
On the impact of this role, Penn joked, “I’m not sure it did great things for the English language,” in reference to Spicoli’s surfer drawl.
DiCaprio rebutted, saying that growing up in Southern California, “everybody wanted to be Sean Penn.”
Discussing his Academy Award-winning role as Harvey Milk in “Milk,” Penn touched on his preparation for the role using the vast amount of clips of the famed San Francisco politician.
During the filming, Penn shared that clips of Milk were “playing for four months without being turned off,” which yielded an incredible performance that did not simply imitate the gay rights leader, but embodied Milk’s message and connection to the community he represented.
“[You] do your best to communicate to an audience what [Harvey Milk] communicated to you,” Penn said of his portrayal.
Hammond then drew the conversation to “One Battle After Another,” touching on the political themes and timely nature of the film.
“[The film] hit the zeitgeist,” Hammond said. “Making a movie that’s supposedly fiction, that’s becoming more real everyday.”
Del Toro shared that he and Anderson visited a migrant facility in El Paso, Texas while filming, as United States immigration policy serves as a major motif and driving force throughout the film.
“We went into that world that [is] around us today. The whole world of migrants and moving migrants, and dealing with all that stuff,” del Toro said. “It was quite heartbreaking to see everything.”
Penn praised Anderson’s script and his co-stars for cultivating a creative filming environment.
“If you’ve got a great script and it comes along with people, who as people and as actors, you have absolute trust in — even more, you’re inspired by like these two guys … there’s an element of pure trust,” Penn said.
DiCaprio reciprocated Penn’s admiration. “I’ve waited my whole life to work with both of these guys. I’ve been such a fan of their work for such a long amount of time,” he said.
“It was an honor working with you two brothers,” DiCaprio added, shaking Penn and del Toro’s hands as the audience cheered.
DiCaprio posing on the red carpet. (Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus)
As Hammond drew the discussion to a close, Durling took to the podium once again to announce Anderson as the surprise presenter, to the shock of the audience. Anderson received a standing ovation.
Anderson began his speech by spoofing a reality dating television show, poking fun at all three actors’ unmarried statuses and referring to all three as “bachelors.”
“This is the world’s sexiest ass version of the dating game, by the way,” Anderson said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
The director then continued to praise the work done by the three stars on “One Battle After Another” and their contributions to the film industry as a whole.
“These three bachelors are responsible for a pretty great list of films that we can count amongst our time’s greatest contribution to movie heritage,” Anderson said. “These are our movie stars.”
Anderson touched on the mutual admiration shared between the co-stars. “There is no good work without mutual respect. And the fact that these fucking gems are sitting here together shows the respect that they have for each other,” he said.
He closed his speech by expressing his honor in directing the three actors together. “That’s a trifecta. I mean that’s a fucking trifecta,” Anderson said, gesturing across the stage to the honorees.
“If you like your movie stars old-fashioned with talent, some mystery, some class and a little bit of unpredictable danger, then here are three of a dying breed,” he concluded.
“One Battle After Another” director Paul Thomas Anderson making a surprise appearance at the event. (Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus)
DiCaprio, Penn and del Toro made their way to the podium to receive their Hammond Cinema Vanguard Awards as the audience stood up and roared with applause.
Standing side-by-side with awards in hand and facing the audience, the three honorees and presenter basked in the warm reception of the Santa Barbara crowd, cementing the 2026 Hammond Cinema Vanguard Award as a momentous night in SBIFF history.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15, where DiCaprio is currently nominated for Best Actor, Penn and del Toro are nominated for Best Supporting Actor and “One Battle After Another” is nominated for Best Picture.
A version of this article appeared in the 2/12 print edition of the Daily Nexus
