Tom Cruise to receive honorary Oscar in career first
He has had four Oscar nominations but has never won the prestigious prize.
27 Jun 2025 05:00pm
US actor Tom Cruise gestures upon arrival for the European Premier of F1 The Movie, at Cineworld Leicester Square, central London, on June 23, 2025. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
US actor and film producer Tom Cruise will receive an honorary Oscar ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards, the organizers said Tuesday, marking a career first for the Hollywood veteran.
Cruise was selected to receive a statuette for his contributions to cinema, along with choreographer Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas.
Dolly Parton will also be awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her decades-long humanitarian work, with the trophies presented at the Academy's 16th Governors Awards event in November.
Cruise, 62, has had four Oscar nominations but has never won the prestigious prize, despite achieving global fame for his roles in action films "Mission: Impossible" and "Top Gun."
"Tom Cruise's incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community has inspired us all," the Academy said in a statement.
It praised him as "one of the most recognized and highest-grossing actors of all time" and noted his commitment to performing all of his own stunts.
Allen, 75, was recognized for her five-decade career that has included choreographing the Academy Awards ceremony seven times and working on films including 1995 rom-com "Forget Paris."
Meanwhile, Thomas was saluted for his production work on titles such as "Malcolm X" and "Do the Right Thing." - AFP
More Like This
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sinar Daily
7 hours ago
- Sinar Daily
Tom Cruise to receive honorary Oscar in career first
He has had four Oscar nominations but has never won the prestigious prize. 27 Jun 2025 05:00pm US actor Tom Cruise gestures upon arrival for the European Premier of F1 The Movie, at Cineworld Leicester Square, central London, on June 23, 2025. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP) US actor and film producer Tom Cruise will receive an honorary Oscar ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards, the organizers said Tuesday, marking a career first for the Hollywood veteran. Cruise was selected to receive a statuette for his contributions to cinema, along with choreographer Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas. Dolly Parton will also be awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her decades-long humanitarian work, with the trophies presented at the Academy's 16th Governors Awards event in November. Cruise, 62, has had four Oscar nominations but has never won the prestigious prize, despite achieving global fame for his roles in action films "Mission: Impossible" and "Top Gun." "Tom Cruise's incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community has inspired us all," the Academy said in a statement. It praised him as "one of the most recognized and highest-grossing actors of all time" and noted his commitment to performing all of his own stunts. Allen, 75, was recognized for her five-decade career that has included choreographing the Academy Awards ceremony seven times and working on films including 1995 rom-com "Forget Paris." Meanwhile, Thomas was saluted for his production work on titles such as "Malcolm X" and "Do the Right Thing." - AFP More Like This
The Star
9 hours ago
- The Star
Roblox's Grow A Garden explodes online video game numbers
More than 21 million players connected to Grow A Garden at the same time on June 21, buying seeds to cultivate a little patch of virtual land, harvesting crops, selling their produce and nicking stuff from other players' plots. — Roblox PARIS: A gardening game created by a teenager on online platform Roblox has attracted a record 21 million simultaneous players, a figure rarely seen in the industry. "You could quite easily never have heard of Grow A Garden ... and yet it is by some measures the biggest video game at the moment," Dom Tait, an analyst with UK firm Omdia, told AFP. More than 21 million players connected to Grow A Garden at the same time on June 21, buying seeds to cultivate a little patch of virtual land, harvesting crops, selling their produce and nicking stuff from other players' plots. That shattered the record held by the adrenalin-packed Fortnite , which attracted 15 million concurrent users (CCUs) during an event in late 2020 featuring characters from the Marvel universe. "It's enormous," Tait said of Grow A Garden 's success. He said it was difficult to say categorically if the sedate farming-themed game had broken all CCU records because other platforms do not necessarily publish numbers for other hugely popular games, such as Honor Of Kings . "(But) I think we can be confident it's a record for Roblox because Roblox has given us these these figures," he said. Roblox, which is popular with children and teenagers, was released in 2005 and is now available on almost all consoles and on mobile phones. It has morphed into an online gaming platform – one of the world's largest – where players can programme their own games and try out other users' creations. Games on the platform are free to play. Roblox makes its money through a range of revenue streams, including in-game purchases, advertising and royalty fees. Created in three days Grow a Garden appeared in late March, developed by a teenager about whom little is known. Game development group Splitting Point Studios soon snapped up a share. The original creator "literally made the game in, like, three days", Splitting Point CEO Janzen Madsen told specialist website Game File. Tait says the success of Grow A Garden , with its simple graphics and basic mechanics, can be explained by its comforting nature. "There's not much danger. There's not much threat. You just sort of go on and do things and just sort of have a gentle experience," he said. He pointed to the satisfaction players derived from seeing their garden evolve, even when they are not connected. A bit like a real garden, only quicker. The concept is reminiscent of Animal Crossing , a simulation of life in a village populated by cute animals that became a soothing refuge for many players during the first Covid lockdowns in 2020. For specialist site Gamediscover, another attraction of Grow A Garden is the ease with which players can get to grips with the game – a bonus for Roblox, which said 40% of the platform's users last year were under 13. Massive audience It is difficult to know exactly how much Grow A Garden has earned for its developers. But Tait said those who created the best paid experiences received "about 70%" of the money spent by gamers "with Roblox taking the rest". Roblox says on its website it paid out US$923 million to developers in 2024. "It is big money. So there's a little bit of nervousness in the industry about, 'Is Roblox taking away the audience that would otherwise have spent hundreds of pounds on a console and bought my console games?'" These sums demonstrate the weight in the video game industry of behemoths like Roblox and Fortnite , which have recently peaked at 350 and 100 million monthly players respectively. "Both places provide a massive audience – as large as any single console platform audience – and they provide awesome opportunities for creators," Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Fortnite publisher Epic Games, told The Game Business website. Beyond its success, Roblox has also come in for criticism. US investment research firm Hindenburg Research published a report in 2024 accusing the platform of inflating its monthly active player count and not sufficiently protecting users from sexual predators. In response, Roblox rejected Hindenburg's "financial claims" as "misleading" and said on its investor relations website it had "a robust set of proactive and preventative safety measures designed to catch and prevent malicious or harmful activity". – AFP
New Straits Times
10 hours ago
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: Brad Pitt's LA home burglarised while actor was in UK
LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles residence of Oscar-winning actor Brad Pitt was reportedly ransacked by three suspects late Wednesday night while the star was overseas for a film premiere. According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the trio gained entry to the Los Feliz home through a front window around 10.30pm local time and proceeded to "ransack the location", according to the BBC. While authorities did not officially confirm the address belonged to Pitt, property records indicate the home was purchased by the actor in 2023. The suspects fled the scene with an unspecified amount of stolen items. It remains unclear what was taken, and the LAPD has not disclosed the value of the missing possessions. Fortunately, Pitt was not at home during the burglary, as widely reported by US media outlets. The actor had been in the United Kingdom earlier in the week for the London premiere of his new film, "F1". He was seen attending the event alongside fellow Hollywood icon Tom Cruise and seven-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, Lewis Hamilton. Pitt's large, three-bedroom home, shielded from public view by extensive fencing and greenery, is located just outside Griffith Park, near the iconic Hollywood Sign. This incident follows a series of recent burglaries targeting celebrity homes in Los Angeles, including those of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.
