Tom Cruise Receives Honorary Oscar at 2025 Governors Awards

Tom Cruise was honored in a big way at the 2025 Governors Awards.

The actor, 63, received an Academy Honorary Award on the evening of Nov. 16 and was presented the gong by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is directing Cruise in an upcoming, as-yet-untitled film set to be released in Oct. 2026.

Taking to the stage, the movie legend used the opportunity of his speech to pay tribute to all of the people who make movies as well as touching upon the unifying power of cinema.

“The cinema, it takes me around the world,” Cruise said. “It helps me to appreciate and respect differences. It shows me also our shared humanity, how alike we are in so, so many ways. And no matter where we come from, in that theater, we laugh together, we feel together, we hope together, and that is the power of this art form.”

He continued: “And that is why it matters, that is why it matters to me. So making films is not what I do, it is who I am.”

The Mission Impossible star, who wore a black tuxedo for the occasion, then touched on his own childhood and where his love for film came from.

“My love for cinema began at a very early age, as early as I can remember,” he said. “I was just a little kid in a darkened theater, and I remember that beam of light just cut across the room, and I remember looking up, and it seemed to be just exploded on the screen. Suddenly, the world was so much larger than the one that I knew.”

“Entire cultures and lives and landscapes all unfolded in front of me, and it sparked something. It sparked a hunger for adventure, a hunger for knowledge, a hunger to understand humanity, to create characters, to tell a story, to see the world. It opened my eyes. It opened my imagination to the possibility that life could expand far beyond the boundaries that I then perceived in my own life.”

He concluded, “And that beam of light opened a desire to open the world, and I have been following it ever since.”

The Top Gun: Maverick actor, who has been nominated at the Oscars four times during his career — Best Actor for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire, Best Supporting Actor for Magnolia and Best Picture for his role as a producer on Top Gun: Maverick — received the award inside the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles alongside honorees Dolly Parton, Debbie Allen and Wynn Thomas.

In June, when Cruise was announced as a recipient, Academy President Janet Yang praised Cruise as “one of the most recognized and highest-grossing actors of all time.”

“Cruise’s incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community has inspired us all,” she shared.

The Jerry Maguire star also showed off his fun side, dancing up a storm with fellow Honorary Oscar nominee, choreographer Debbie Allen, at a pre-awards event the previous evening.

In one video shared on Instagram by producer and DJ D-Nice, Cruise and Allen could be seen facing each other on the dance floor and boogying, as they both laughed and smiled.

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Cruise made his name starring in hit films like Risky Business (1983), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996). He launched into action with the Mission: Impossible franchise, which spanned from 1996 to 2025’s latest installment, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.

Over the course of the series’ eight films, he continued to raise the bar with his own stunts. Over the franchise’s 30-year span, Cruise has done everything from dangling from a wire in Mission: Impossible to motorcycling off a cliff in Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.

In PEOPLE’s special issue on the franchise, Cruise explained why he continues doing his own stunts.

“People feel the authenticity. You feel the dedication and joy in learning something and then creating. That is something that I tell artists all the time: Don’t ask permission to create,” he said. “If you’re interested in dancing and singing, do it. I will learn a skill, and I know eventually I’m going to use it in a movie.”

Cruise has also been celebrated for his unwavering passion for his industry.

After Top Gun: Maverick claimed the spot as the highest-grossing movie of 2022 in the U.S., Cruise was praised by filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg at the 2023 Oscars nominees luncheon for saving “Hollywood’s ass” due to the success of his sequel.

The director added that Cruise “might have saved theatrical distribution” entirely with the long-awaited follow-up to the 1986 hit.

The 2026 Oscars will be hosted by Conan O’Brien, who is returning for the second year in a row after hosting the 97th ceremony earlier this year.

Preliminary voting for the 98th Academy Awards begins in December, with the nominations announcement scheduled for Jan. 22, 2026.

The 98th Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 15, 2026.