Tom Cruise has celebrated his first-ever Oscar win with a little boogie, as he was awarded an honorary Academy Award at the annual Governors Awards.
The 63-year-old actor is one of the most well-known – and well-paid – actors in Hollywood, after raking in the big bucks for the Mission Impossible franchise and other major hits, including Top Gun, Minority Report and Rain Man.
However, after four Academy Award nominations over his career spanning decades, the actor has never managed to cinch an Oscar.
However, on Sunday night at the Governors Awards, that all changed for Mr Cruise.
The actor was awarded an Academy Honorary Award last night, celebrating his acting career and dedication to the stunt community.
The star was then snapped, celebrating his win with other A-listers on the dance floor, as captured by American DJ and record producer D-Nice, who shared a clip of Tom’s moves on social media.
‘Last night was a vibe! I kept the vibes flowing as we celebrated @therealdebbieallen in a major way. @tomcruise is invited to the barbecue! 🪩🕺🏾,’ he said.
The actor was previously nominated for the best actor oscar in 1990 for Born on the Fourth of July. In 1997 he was nominated for the same award for Jerry Maguire.
In 2000, he received the best supporting actor nomination for Magnolia, and in 2023, he received the Best Picture nomination for Top Gun: Maverick, in which he appeared as an actor and worked as a producer.
What did Tom Cruise get his Oscar for?
Tom Cruise was awarded this Oscar for his ‘incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community.’
The actor gave an emotional speech after receiving the award, telling audiences: ‘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.’
He went on to speak about how he has loved cinema since he was a child.
‘My love for cinema began at a very early age, as early as I can remember. 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 exploded 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.’
The action star was presented the award by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is directing him in an upcoming film (yet to be given a title) which is set to be released in 2026.
Who else was given an honorary Oscar this year?
Two other people in the film industry received the academy honourary award, Debbie Allen, a choreographer and actress and Wynn Thomas, a production designer.
At the ceremony, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was awarded to Dolly Parton.
What is the Governors’ Awards?
The Governors Awards is an annual award ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in Hollywood.
The awards handed out signify a lifetime achievement award to the best of the best in the film industry.
Previously, the academy honorary award has been awarded to the likes of Orson Welles,Cary Grant, Gene Kelly, Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson, Donald Sutherland, Robert Redford and Angela Lansbury.
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