Tom Cruise is set to receive one of Hollywood’s top career accolades.
The American Film Institute Board of Trustees announced today that the Digger star will be the recipient of the 52nd AFI Life Achievement Award. The honor will be presented to Cruise at a gala tribute at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 24, 2027.
“Tom Cruise is a global icon,” says Kathleen Kennedy, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees, in a statement shared with Gold Derby. “As an actor and producer, he brings an extraordinary commitment to everything he does. What I especially admire is his deep belief in movies and their ability to bring people together. That passion has made him an extraordinary ambassador for American film around the world.”
Per the Gold Derby experts’ odds, Cruise has a 51% chance of receiving an Oscar nomination for his latest role in Digger, trailing only John Malkovich (Wild Horse Nine), Andrew Scott (Elsinore), and Matt Damon (The Odyssey).
Best Actor
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John Malkovich
Wild Horse Nine
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Ryan Gosling
Project Hail Mary
His performance in Digger has been heralded as one of the biggest swings of his career. The star, whose films have earned nearly $13 billion in worldwide box office, has been nominated in this category twice before, for Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Jerry Maguire (1996). He also has a supporting bid for Magnolia (1999) and a producing nod for Top Gun: Maverick (2022), a sequel to his 1986 blockbuster, and he received an honorary Oscar in 2025. Cruise’s storied filmography also includes the Mission: Impossible franchise, Eyes Wide Shut, A Few Good Men, Rain Man, The Color of Money, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, Collateral, Edge of Tomorrow, Tropic Thunder, Vanilla Sky, The Firm, Cocktail, Risky Business, and The Outsiders.
Past AFI recipients include Eddie Murphy (2026), Francis Ford Coppola (2025), Nicole Kidman (2024), Julie Andrews (2022), Denzel Washington (2019), and George Clooney (2018).
