Overview
- Festival officials said Leonardo DiCaprio could not depart St. Barts due to restricted airspace and widespread flight cancellations across the eastern Caribbean.
- Palm Springs International Airport reported an FAA air traffic control issue that triggered a ground stop for departures, which was later lifted with delays continuing.
- DiCaprio accepted the Desert Palm Achievement Award by video during the ceremony, saying in his message, “I’m stuck on the East Coast.”
- The travel disruptions followed U.S. military strikes in Venezuela, with President Donald Trump saying Nicolás Maduro had been taken into U.S. custody as critics pressed legal challenges and the Senate planned a war powers vote next week.
- The absence came as Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another won the National Society of Film Critics’ best picture, with DiCaprio also in contention at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday.