After more than four decades as one of Hollywood’s biggest box-office stars, Tom Cruise on Sunday accepted his first Academy Award, an Academy Honorary Award presented at the 2025 Governors Awards and delivered an emotional tribute to the craft that has defined his life.
“The cinema, it takes me around the world… So making films is not what I do, it is who I am,” Cruise said from the stage at the Ray Dolby Ballroom as he held the gold statuette. The line quickly became the centerpiece of speeches and headlines that followed the ceremony.
The award, which the Academy gives to honor lifetime achievement and extraordinary contributions to motion pictures, was presented to Cruise by director Alejandro González Iñárritu who is also working with Cruise on an upcoming project and recognized not only the actor’s performances but his long-running advocacy for theatrical cinema and for performing his own stunts. Academy president Janet Yang praised Cruise’s commitment to the theatrical experience during the presentation.
Cruise, 63, has been nominated for four competitive Oscars over the years including acting nods for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire and a producing nomination for Top Gun: Maverick — but had never before taken home a statuette. The honorary award places him among a group of industry figures being celebrated this year; other honorees at the Governors Awards included Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas, while Dolly Parton received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
In his remarks Cruise reflected on cinema’s ability to unite diverse audiences and credited colleagues, from directors and producers to stunt teams and theatre audiences for shaping his career. He singled out the communal experience of movie-going as a central reason he continues to make films. Reporters at the Governors Awards noted several familiar industry faces in the crowd standing to applaud Cruise as he thanked collaborators who have worked with him across decades.
Reactions across the industry were swift, with profiles and coverage emphasizing both Cruise’s box-office legacy and his insistence on practical stunts and theatrical releases at a time when the business has shifted toward streaming. Coverage also highlighted that the honorary Oscar is a recognition of a broader career impact — from pushing technical boundaries on action cinema to championing movie theatres during difficult periods for the industry.
What this means
The honorary award does not change Cruise’s competitive-Oscar history, but it is a formal recognition from the Academy of his long-term influence on mainstream filmmaking and exhibition. Industry observers see it as an acknowledgment of both his commercial achievements and his role in shaping modern blockbuster filmmaking — a fitting capstone, some say, for an artist who has made spectacle central to his career.
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