What is an Honorary Oscar as Tom Cruise wins his first ever Academy Award after 44 years
Topics: Academy Awards, Film and TV, Hollywood, Oscars, Tom Cruise, US News
Ellie Kemp
Featured Image Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Topics: Academy Awards, Film and TV, Hollywood, Oscars, Tom Cruise, US News
Tom Cruise has finally won his first ever Oscar after 44 years of breath-taking big screen performances.
The action star was presented with an Academy Honorary Award during the institution's Governors Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday (November 16).
Cruise has previously been nominated for four Oscars in a 33-year period but never won.
He was given a nod for Best Actor in Born of the Fourth of July in 1989 and Jerry Maguire in 1996, for Best Supporting Actor for 1999's Magnolia and Best Picture as producer for Top Gun: Maverick in 2022.
Advert
The Hollywood legend, famed for performing his own stunts, gave a heartfelt speech as he accepted his Honorary Award.
"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 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."
But with the usual Oscars ceremony taking place in mid-March, you might be wondering what an Honorary Oscar actually is - and why it's awarded in November.
As per The Academy itself, Honorary Oscars have actually been awarded since the Academy Awards began in 1929.
Since 2009, they're presented at the Governors Awards in a separate ceremony 'to allow for a wider range of talents to be recognized each year without the time constraints of the main broadcast'.
They're decided on by the Academy's governors in spring, hence their title. Up to four Governors Awards may be presented in a given year.
The Honorary Oscars go out to 'extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement in cinema and exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences'.
It is considered to be the most prestigious awards in the global film industry, the Academy says.
The likes of Charles Chaplin, Walt Disney, Cary Grant and Dustin Hoffman have been recognized with the award.
Angela Bassett was the last actor to win it before Cruise, back in 2024.
The Academy said Cruise was a worthy recipient for his 'incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community'.
Also celebrated at the Governors Awards was actor and choreographer Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas, who both won Honorary Awards.
Elsewhere, country music icon Dolly Parton won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award - honoring someone whose 'humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities'.
She accepted the award with a pre-recorded message.