Tom Cruise will receive the 52nd AFI Life Achievement Award, joining a past roster of honorees that includes Hollywood greats from Bette Davis and Gregory Peck to Meryl Streep and Francis Ford Coppola.
The American Film Institute Board of Trustees made the announcement today, calling the trophy “the highest honor for a career in film.” The award will be presented to Cruise at a Gala Tribute at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 24, 2027.
“Tom Cruise is a global icon,” said Kathleen Kennedy, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. “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. It is AFI’s honor to present him with the 52nd AFI Life Achievement Award.”
A three-time Oscar nominee whose films have earned nearly $13 billion in worldwide box office, Cruise counts an impressive roster of films among his credits: Risky Business, Top Gun, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men, the Mission: Impossible series and many more. He currently stars in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger, a film that has polarized audiences even as it stands as one of the most talked-about movies of the season.
Cruise is set to return as Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder 2.
Cruise has previously been honored by the Cannes Film Festival, the Producer’s Guild of America, France’s Knight of the Legion of Honor, Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award, the John Huston Award from the Artists Rights Foundation, the Simon Wiesenthal Humanitarian Award, the Entertainment Icon Award from the Friar’s Club, the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation’s Pioneer Award. In 2025, Cruise received the Honorary Oscar at the Academy Award’s Governor’s Awards.
The most recent recipients of the AFI Life Achievement Award are Eddie Murphy, Francis Ford Coppola, Nicole Kidman, Julie Andrews, Denzel Washington, George Clooney and Diane Keaton. The award was first presented in 1973 to director John Ford.