Tom Cruise receives Honorary Oscar with an emotional speech - watch video

Tom Cruise

Legendary actor Tom Cruise was recently bestowed with one of the Academy's highest honours at the Governors Awards on November 16. He received the Academy Honorary Award Oscar, marking a significant moment in his four-decade career. The actor was honoured with a standing ovation as he received the award, during which he reflected on the influence of cinema on his life and the communities it reaches in his emotional speech.

Tom Cruise receives Honorary Oscar

The award was presented to Cruise by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is directing the actor in an upcoming, as-yet-untitled film set to be released in October 2026. Upon accepting the award, Cruise delivered an emotional speech paying tribute to all the people who make films possible, as well as the unifying power of cinema.

He said, "The cinema, it takes me around the world. 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 theatre, we laugh together, we feel together, we hope together, and that is the power of this art form. 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."

Talking about the genesis of his film fandom, Crusise said, "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 theatre, and I remember that beam of light just cut across the room, and I remember looking up, and it seemed to be just exploding on the screen. Suddenly, the world was so much larger than the one that I knew. And 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. And that beam of light opened a desire to open the world, and I have been following it ever since."

Tom Cruise Oscar nominations

For the unversed, prior to this, Tom has earned four nominations, including best actor nods for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire, a supporting actor nomination for Magnolia, and a best picture nomination as a producer of Top Gun: Maverick. However, the Honorary Oscar marks his first Academy Award.