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Palm Springs Film Festival Awards: Red carpet arrivals, honourees, and more

Star-studded 2026 Palm Springs Festival Awards are underway on January 3

By Maria Jamal |

January 04, 2026

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Palm Springs Film Festival Awards: Red carpet arrivals, honourees, and more

The 36th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival rolled out its red carpet to welcome a host of stars who headlined the biggest and most successful films of the year.

However, the ceremony ran into some unexpected trouble when the US military operation in Venezuela caused a no-fly situation in several locations, forcing flight delays to Palm Springs, California.

Leonardo DiCaprio fell prey to such circumstances, finding himself unable to fly to the festival from his stay at St. Barts.

Nevertheless, many other stars showed up to the awards gala with full pageantry, decked out in their evening best.

While many of them additionally took to the stage, expressing gratitude for their cinematic triumphs and departing wisdom about cinema itself.

Awards list

Miley Cyrus — 2026 Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award for Avatar: Fire and Ash soundtrack

Timothée Chalamet — Spotlight Actor of the Year Award for Marty Supreme

Rose Byrne — 2026 Breakthrough Performance Award for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Kate Hudson — 2026 Icon Award, Actress for Song sung Blue

Amanda Seyfried — Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress for The Testament of Ann Lee

Ethan Hawke — Career Achievement Award

Michael B. Jordan — 2026 Icon Award for Sinners

Adam Sandler — 2026 Chairman’s Award for Jay Kelly

Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning — International Star Award for Sentimental Value

Chloé Zhao, Paul Mescal, and Jessie Buckley — Vanguard Award for Hamnet

Guillermo del Toro, Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and Mia Goth — Visionary Award for Frankenstein

Details

The International Award and Visionary Award are being awarded for the first time in the festival’s history.

Moreover, DiCaprio accepted his award via virtual transmission, telling the gala’s audience, “I’m stuck on the East Coast. I wish I was there to celebrate with all of you. I’m truly grateful to be a part of it, even from a distance.”

Further discussing his love for movies growing up, the actor added, “Original films are harder to make and harder to protect, but movies still matter, not content, but cinema. Stories made by people meant to be shared in a dark room, in a communal experience. Thank you for believing in this work, and thank you for believing in the movies.”

While Hawke, who starred in Blue Moon this year, echoed similar sentiments, saying during his speech, “I believe in the movies. I believe creativity is in our nature, manifests in us, in our expressions, and represents our collective mental health. And we, all of us in this room, have a charge to do our best to be good, and we have the power to do it.

According to Desert Sun, Chalamet was not spotted in the red carpet coverage of the event because he snuck into it “through a back door with girlfriend Kylie Jenner in tow.”