Tom Cruise Receives His First Oscar

Tom Cruise has been nominated for several Oscars, both as an actor and a producer. But he’s never won a competitive Oscar over the course of his very successful 40-year career. But now he can call himself an Oscar recipient, as he was presented with an Honorary Oscar “for his legacy of work” at this year’s Governors Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Cruise received his award over the weekend at a ceremony that also honored Debbie Allen, production designer Wynn Thomas, and Dolly Parton.

As part of a long, heartfelt speech, Cruise spoke about why he loves moves so much…

[Cinema] 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. 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.

You can watch Cruise’s entire acceptance speech below:

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Once upon a time, honorary Oscars like Cruise’s were given out at the actual Academy Awards ceremony in February or March. But because people always complain that the Oscars are too long, the Academy created this separate “Governors Awards” event in the fall.

I suppose it’s nice that Cruise could accept his award and take all the time he wanted to thank all the people he has worked with and who inspired him. His speech was really good, and if it had aired on television it surely would have drawn complaints about its length on social media. But … Tom Cruise gets an Oscar for the first time feels like something that people would probably want to see, right? Like, on the Oscars telecast?

I understand why they stopped giving these awards out during the actual Oscars, but it doesn’t seem ideal to me at all.