Tom Cruise receives Honorary Oscar: 'Cinema helps me to appreciate and respect differences'

In June, it was announced that Tom Cruise would be awarded an Honorary Oscar at the 16th annual Governors Awards. In the ceremony, held on November 16, filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu presented Cruise with the award. Cruise was among the honorees that included Debbie Allen, Wynn Thomas and Dolly Parton for their remarkable contributions to the film industry.

In his acceptance speech, Cruise said that cinema takes him "around the world" and that it helps him "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,” he added.

Recalling childhood moments when his love for cinema began, Cruise said, "I was just a little kid in a darkened theater, 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.”

Although Cruise has been nominated four times in different Oscar categories, and won other international awards, he hasn't, surprisingly, won a single Oscar for his acting and producing work. He was nominated for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia (supporting actor), and Top Gun: Maverick (producer).

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