After eluding him for 45 years, Tom Cruise now has the chance to win two Academy Awards just 16 months apart. On November 16, 2025, Cruise was awarded an Honorary Oscar at the annual Governors’ Awards for his lifetime dedication to cinema. The high honor comes less than a year before the release of the untitled Alejandro G. Iñárritu movie starring Cruise in a prestigious leading role that could finally lead the actor to Oscar gold.
Nominated four times in his career, Cruise’s high-flying stunt work and mainstream action movies often mask what a terrific actor he has always been deep down. There’s a reason why Cruise has worked with the best directors in Hollywood, including Spielberg, Scorsese, and Kubrick. Now that he’s joining forces with the supremely talented, award-winning director Iñárritu, Tom Cruise may win his second Oscar in 16 months.
Tom Cruise’s Honorary Oscar Reception
Paramount Pictures
At the 16th annual Governors Awards held in Los Angeles on November 16, 2025, four-time Oscar nominee Tom Cruise received an Honorary Oscar. The golden statuette was presented to Cruise by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the venerated Mexican filmmaker who won back-to-back Best Director Oscars for Birdman and The Revenant. In addition to his lifetime contributions to cinema, Cruise was awarded the Honorary Oscar for his unparalleled stunt work and outspoken support for the theatrical moviegoing experience in the streaming age.
Cruise received a long, warm hug from Iñárritu onstage as the classic Mission: Impossible theme played. Their embrace highlighted how much the award meant to both the actor and the filmmaker, who had just completed their first project together. Cruise drew a rousing ovation from a star-studded crowd before heaping effusive praise on Iñárritu, his fellow nominees, and launching into a lengthy speech full of heartfelt gratitude.
For all the off-screen flak Cruise has received for his controversial ties to Scientology, those who’ve worked with the actor have nothing but glowing words for a big-hearted movie star who treats others with kindness and respect. His Honorary Oscar speech reflects this, especially when he tells the audience that he can’t wait to see what he and Iñárritu have made together. If all goes well, Cruise may very well earn his fifth Oscar nomination and his first win following his Honorary Award.
Tom Cruise’s Previous Brushes With Oscar Glory
Universal Pictures
For the most bankable movie star, who often gets headlines for his death-defying stunt work and blockbuster action movies, it’s worth reminding folks that Tom Cruise is, and has always been, a superb character actor as well. First, the litany of all-time great directors he’s worked with is downright staggering and alone worth earning an Honorary Oscar.
Ever since working with Francis Ford Coppola in his breakout role in The Outsiders, Cruise has worked with Tony Scott, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Neil Jordan, Brian De Palma, Cameron Crowe, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, and more. That’s an unparalleled resume for the biggest movie star of the last 40 years.
During that run with the all-time best filmmakers around, Cruise earned four Academy Award nominations. His first came in 1990 after giving arguably his best performance in Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, in which Cruise portrays real-life paralyzed Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic. In a performance that couldn’t have been any different, Cruise earned his second Oscar nod for his lead role in Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire, giving a tenderly romantic turn for the ages as a sports agent who falls in love.
Cruise’s third and most recent acting Oscar nomination came in 2000, when he received a Best Supporting Actor nod in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. In one of his funniest and most devious performances, Cruise plays Frank T.J. Mackey, a motivational speaker whose estranged father is dying of cancer. The trend is clear: when Cruise works with the best directors in Hollywood, he takes risks that lead to career-best performances.
In 2023, Cruise earned his fourth Academy Award nomination, this time as producer for Best Picture. Cruise co-produced Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel that not only surpassed his star-making 1986 original but also reinvigorated movie theater attendance following the global pandemic. And that doesn’t even include the lucrative Mission: Impossible franchise, which Cruise has produced from its inception in 1996. Extracurricular activities be damned, Tom Cruise deserves his flowers for his cinematic contributions over the past 40 years.
Why Tom Cruise Has a Chance To Win Best Actor in 2027
New Line Cinema
If Alejandro G. Iñárritu makes another prestigious awards darling, Tom Cruise has a real shot at winning two Oscars within 16 months of each other. The untitled collaboration between the director and actor is slated for a release by Warner Bros. on October 2, 2026. October is traditionally a month for serious award contenders to come out. Therefore, if Cruise earns his fourth acting nod, he could walk away with the statuette at the 99th Academy Awards held in the spring of 2027. That would mark 16 months since he received an Honorary Oscar in November 2025.
As for the untitled movie’s premise, it is described as a dark comedy written by Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., and Nicolas Giacobone. In the film, Cruise is set to portray “the most powerful man in the world,” who, after creating a global catastrophe, works to atone for his sins and prove that he is humanity’s savior. Given the size and scope of the Godlike character, not to mention the prestigious filmmaking pedigree, Cruise has a legitimate shot at winning his first acting Oscar and second overall.
Supporting Cruise in the lead role are John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons, Sandra Huller, Sophie Wilde, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman, and Robert John Burke. Adding to Cruise’s Oscar prospects is the acclaimed cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who won three consecutive Academy Awards for Gravity, Birdman, and The Revenant. Costume designer Jacqueline West (The Revenant) also returns.
With Cruise also serving as a producer on the upcoming film, he is likely to pour more of himself into the role to ensure the best performance possible. If Iñárritu delivers another Oscar-caliber movie, as most expect, Tom Cruise has a legitimate shot at winning his second Oscar 16 months apart after going nearly 45 years without one.
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