The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to present actor/producer Tom Cruise, actress/producer/choreographer Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas with Honorary Awards, and actress/singer-songwriter Dolly Parton with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 16th annual Governors Awards, the organization announced Tuesday.
The honorees — whose selection was the final decision made by the 55 governors who served on the Academy’s board during the 2024-2025 term, including the likes of Pam Abdy, Jason Blum, Ruth E. Carter, Ava DuVernay, Marlee Matlin, Jason Reitman and Eric Roth — will be fêted at a black-tie ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 16.
“This year’s Governors Awards will celebrate four legendary individuals whose extraordinary careers and commitment to our filmmaking community continue to leave a lasting impact,” outgoing Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement. “The Academy’s board of governors is honored to recognize these brilliant artists. Debbie Allen is a trailblazing choreographer and actor, whose work has captivated generations and crossed genres. Tom Cruise’s incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community has inspired us all. Beloved performer Dolly Parton exemplifies the spirit of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award through her unwavering dedication to charitable efforts. And production designer Wynn Thomas has brought some of the most enduring films to life through a visionary eye and mastery of his craft.”
The board annually bestows Honorary Awards for lifetime achievement. (Previous recipients include Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Louis B. Mayer, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Federico Fellini, Sidney Poitier, Steve Martin, Gena Rowlands and, last year, Quincy Jones.) On occasion, it also chooses to present the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which recognizes the achievements of a creative producer and/or executive (honorees have included Darryl F. Zanuck, David O. Selznick, Jack Warner, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall and, last year, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson) and/or the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, celebrating remarkable service to others (honorees have included Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Oprah Winfrey and, last year, Richard Curtis). Each of these honors now comes in the form of an Oscar statuette.
* * *
Cruise, 62, who is often described as “the last movie star,” has consistently been a top box-office draw for longer than anyone else in history. His popularity — built on the back of his all-American, boy-next-door smile and swagger, as well as real acting chops and tireless boosterism of his own projects — has spanned 1983’s Risky Business through 2025’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, a period of 42 years, with two chart-topping Top Gun movies, 36 years apart, inbetween, the latter of which, in the view of no less an authority than Steven Spielberg, “saved Hollywood’s ass” in the wake of the global pandemic.
Cruise spent the first half of his career working mostly in filmmaker-driven projects. He was directed by Barry Levinson (1988’s Rain Man, which won the best picture Oscar), Francis Ford Coppola (1983’s The Outsiders), Martin Scorsese (1986’s The Color of Money), Oliver Stone (1989’s Born on the Fourth of July, for which he received the first of his four Oscar noms), Rob Reiner (1992’s A Few Good Men), Sydney Pollack (1993’s The Firm), Cameron Crowe (1996’s Jerry Maguire, Oscar nom #2, and 2001’s Vanilla Sky), Stanley Kubrick (1999’s Eyes Wide Shut), Paul Thomas Anderson (1999’s Magnolia, Oscar nom #3), Spielberg (2002’s Minority Report) and Michael Mann (2004’s Collateral).
He has spent the second half working mostly in action-oriented flicks of varying quality, but fairly unwavering popularity, in which he famously does many of his own stunts. Among them: eight Mission: Impossible films (1996, 2000, 2006, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2023 and 2025), the first of which also marked his debut producing credit (he also has produced every subsequent installment), plus The Last Samurai (2003), The War of the Worlds (2005), Jack Reacher (2012, also a producer), Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016, also a producer) and Top Gun: Maverick (also a producer, resulting in Oscar nom #4).
With few exceptions, the most notable being 2008’s Tropic Thunder, Cruise has, over the last 20 years, consistently played a version of Cruise, or at least his well-established screen persona, which audiences still love. Unlike other A-listers, you won’t see him playing a superhero in a comic book adaptation — he turned down Tony Stark — because in his movies he, not the character he plays, is the star; and you won’t see him on a streaming service or on TV, because he is a movie star, which is why he also ferociously defends the theatrical experience.
* * *
Allen, 75, is not only a trailblazing artist, but also a champion of arts education — on screen (her most famous role is dance teacher Lydia Grant in the 1980 film Fame and its television adaptation that ran from 1982 through 1987, which she also choreographed) and off (through her Debbie Allen Dance Academy in LA and other activities).
Her stage and TV credits are extensive — she has been nominated for two Tonys and 21 Primetime Emmys, winning five of the latter, and the TV Academy presented her with a Governors Award in 2021 and inducted her into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2022. Her standout work in film has been more limited — beyond Fame, she also acted in 1981’s Ragtime; produced 1997’s Amistad with Steven Spielberg; and choreographed 2024’s The Six Triple Eight.
Allen, who also choreographed seven Oscars telecasts, previously has been the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, a Kennedy Center Honor and many other major prizes.
* * *
Thomas, who got his start in the New York theater, is a revered production designer who is best known for his extensive collaboration with Spike Lee, which encompasses 11 films over 35 years, spanning Lee’s feature directorial debut, 1986’s She’s Gotta Have It, through 2020’s Da 5 Bloods, and also includes Lee’s most celebrated films, 1989’s Do the Right Thing and 1992’s Malcolm X.
Thomas has worked with numerous other A-list filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola (on 1984’s The Cotton Club), Robert De Niro (1993’s A Bronx Tale), Ron Howard (on 2001 best picture Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind and 2005’s Cinderella Man), Barry Levinson (1997’s Wag the Dog) and Tim Burton (1996’s Mars Attacks!), and on hit films such as 1999’s Analyze This, 2016’s Hidden Figures and 2021’s King Richard.
The first African American production designer to join the Art Directors Guild, he won two ADG Awards (for Hidden Figures and Da 5 Bloods) and was the recipient of the ADG’s lifetime achievement award in 2024. The ADG declared at the time, “Thomas has significantly shaped the landscape of filmmaking, and his diverse body of work reflects his innovative approach and commitment to storytelling. Beyond his artistic achievements, Thomas is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of designers. Thomas has not only broken barriers but also paved the way for future generations.”
Thomas also served on the Academy’s board of governors from 2017 through 2023, and was its vice president and chair of its education and outreach committee from 2020 through 2023.
* * *
Parton, 79, one of the most popular country music stars of all time, made her mark on the movies as an actress (most memorably in 1980’s 9 to 5 and 1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, for which she received Golden Globe noms) and as a singer/songwriter (garnering best original song Oscar noms for “Nine to Five” from 9 to 5 and “Travelin’ Thru” from 2005’s Transamerica). But her greatest legacy may be her philanthropy.
Indeed, the daughter of a man who never learned to read has spent millions of dollars to give away more than 285 million books to children, aiming to inspire a lifelong love of reading. It’s all done through her Dollywood Foundation, which she created in 1988 with the aim of helping to educate kids from her home state of Tennessee, and the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which launched in 1995. 30 years later, Parton’s organization mails millions of free books every month to pre-schoolers in all fifty states, as well as in Canada, the UK, Ausralia and Ireland.
Beyond that, she has also been an outspoken ally of the LGBTQ community and a pivotal supporter of medical research — as in, $2 million in donations to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center — that helped to fund the critical early stages of development of the Moderna vaccine that saved an untold number of lives during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
* * *
On June 9, THR published a piece suggesting 100 worthy candidates for Governors Awards. It included Parton (#3) and Cruise (#16).