The Motion Picture Academy has announced its honorary awards for 2025.
Tom Cruise, who’s never won an Oscar, will get a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy in November at the Governor’s Awards.
Cruise has been nominated for two Oscars over the four decades he’s been working in Hollywood. He probably deserves this one for saving Hollywood two years ago with “Top Gun Maverick.” Right now, he’s starring in “Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning.”
Also getting Oscars are superstar country singer Dolly Parton, plus dance maven Debbie Allen, and designer Wynn Thomas.
The ceremony will take place at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 16. I think Ovation Hollywood is what used to be called several other things including Hollywood & Highland. Very confusing.
Dolly Parton will get the Jean Hershholt Humanitarian Award for her incredible philanthropy. You can bet Jane Fonda will be the presenter, with Lily Tomlin on hand, too.
Allen choreographed seven Oscars telecasts, previously has been the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, a Kennedy Center Honor and many other major prizes. She’s also a champion of arts education. Plus, Allen counts two Tony nominations, five Emmy Awards, and a a Governors Award from the TV Academy in 2021.
Thomas has worked on almost every Spike Lee movie as a designer, to to mention dozens of other hit films by directors like Barry Levinson, Ron Howard, and Robert De Niro.
This year’s choices are celebrity heavy with Cruise, Parton, and Allen all better known than many of the honorees in the past. There are plenty of people who are still waiting including Glenn Close, Harrison Ford, and so on.
Of course, Tom Cruise will be a magnet for ticket sales for the Governors Awards. But anyone who’s suffered through Cruise winning other awards will remember that his speeches are painfully robotic, and no one who’s worked with him can share any funny anecdotes. Still, he deserves the award.
