Name: Tom Cruise Receives an Honorary Oscar Award | The 16th Governors Awards Presented By @ROLEX
Uploaded: 2025-11-17T13:56:25.000Z
Duration: 12 min 30 s
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Tom, it's my honor to present you with this Governor Award.

Really means a great deal to me that you're here, my friend.

You know, we all saw amorous perils 25 years ago.

I have seen every one of your films since then.

to have been able to make that film with you has just been one of the great privileges of my career.

Can't wait for you all to see the film next year and see what he did.

I want to acknowledge my fellow honorees.

Sir, you began your career in New York theater and carried that eye for truth into cinema.

You know, first film you made was Spike Lee in New York City at the Bleecker Street Theater, August 8, 1986.

I was at the very first showing of that film and marked an exceptional chapter in cinema.

And you are a landmark production designer whose work defined the look, the feeling of films that have shaped American culture and elevated the craft for all of us.

I mean, American original, legendary singer, songwriter, actress, storyteller and humanitarian.

Your performances, your songs, your work, your soul.

I mean, you're part of the very fabric of all of our lives.

And you show that compassion and creativity are not separate, that they are the same burning light.

And your impact on our industry and this world is.

You are more than an actor, a choreographer, a director, a producer.

You are a once in a lifetime force of kindness and artistic expression.

And you open the door for countless young artists to find their voice, their discipline, and

And you have lifted generations through your example, your excellence, and your heart.

You are the very personification of the words your extraordinary mother, Vivian Ayers wrote to be brave, be beautiful and be free.

It is a privilege to share this evening with all of you and everyone in this room.

I mean, you should see what you all look like from here.

The studios, the agencies, the artists, the storytellers.

You know, Look, I see all of you, all's work, and

believe me, you inspire me, you challenge me, and

you expand in my mind what I think is possible.

And it's an honor to be here with you all tonight.

I want to thank the Academy Board of Governors for inviting me this evening and for this honor.

You know, I am truly grateful to have this moment.

So it allows me to acknowledge all the people who have helped me, all the people that I have been fortunate enough to create these films with, because every step of the way, this whole journey has been shared.

And my love for cinema began when I very early age.

I was just when I was this little kid in this darkened theater.

And I remember that beam of light, it just cut across the room, and

I remember looking up, and it seemed to me that it just exploded on the screen.

And suddenly the world was so much larger than the one that I knew.

Entire cultures and lives and landscapes and all of it was just unfolding and folding front of me.

A hunger for adventure, a hunger for knowledge, a hunger to understand humanity, to create characters, to tell a story, to see the world.

And 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 in me.

It opened the world to me, and I have been following it ever since.

I remember being a little kid, I worked every job I could to earn the price of admission.

You know, when I didn't have enough, you know, I just figured out a damn other way to get in that theater, you know?

So cinema that takes me around the world, and it helps me to appreciate and respect differences.

It shows me also our shared humanity, how alike we are in so many ways.

And no matter where we come from in that theater, we laugh together, we feel together, we hope together, we dream together.

And I also appreciate and I respect and understand that cinema is not built by one person, not a single performance, not a single voice.

It is built by communities, by craftsmen, by artists, and

who pass that knowledge hand to hand, set to set, generation to generation.

And I have learned from extraordinary directors.

I have learned from extraordinary writers and actors and cinematographers and editors and designers and stunt teams.

Film crews, all of you, who have built worlds from your imagination.

And I've learned from the talent agencies.

And I've learned from the theater owners and exhibitors and all of you, everyone here, make it possible for audiences to gather in the dark and experience something together.

And I've learned from the audiences themselves, because without you, none of this has meaning for me.

So this evening, I cannot name all of those names, you know, who shared and shaped my life, my work, who have given me this opportunity to have.