At the Governors Awards, Celebrating Tom Cruise While Reckoning with an Uncertain Future

For the 16th year, the Board of Governors of the Motion Picture Academy gave out Honorary Oscars at the Governors Awards inside the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood, where it was crammed with the usual surfeit of happily networking Oscar contenders.

Movie stars hobnobbed freely. Even the usually reclusive Tom Cruise, who mugged for the cameras sitting front and center next to Steven Spielberg, hung out after accepting his Oscar. It was the first after four nominations: three for acting (“Magnolia,” “Jerry Maguire,” and “Born on the Fourth of July”), one for producing (“Top Gun: Maverick”).

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On my way in I greeted Ethan Hawke, whose “Blue Moon” (Sony Pictures Classics) is hanging on in theaters thanks to his surprising, heartbreaking performance as alcoholic songwriter Lorenz Hart. The stars of Oscar frontrunner “One Battle After Another” (Warner Bros.), Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro, arrived together. DiCaprio knows he’s been doing more publicity than usual. “I have to get people in theaters!” he told me. Later in the evening he wandered over to the Netflix tables and hugged “Nouvelle Vague” star Zoey Deutch.

It was fun to see Adam Sandler (“Jay Kelly”) reunited with his “Uncut Gems” directors Ben and Josh Safdie, and Emma Stone (“Bugonia”) hanging at the Focus table with NBC/Universal chairman Donna Langley and Hugh Jackman (“Song Sung Blue”). Stone misses the days when you could predict how a movie would do at the box office.

Josh O’Connor (“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”), fresh from New York (“I made it!”) hung out with Austin Butler (“Eddington”) for the first time; renowned casting director Francine Maisler (“Sinners”) made a beeline to O’Connor at the reception and introduced herself. Jennifer Lawrence arrived smiling, even after a disastrous second weekend for “Die My Love.”

Netflix awards czar Lisa Taback praised the basketball prowess of A24 co-founder David Fenkel (“Marty Supreme”) who partnered with her on a Timothée Chalamet/Adam Sandler conversation at Fairfax High School Saturday night compete with basketball. (Fenkel played in college, he said.) Stellan Skarsgård, partnered with his “Sentimental Value” costar Elle Fanning, was delighted that he was killed off in the last “Dune” installment so he wouldn’t have to wear that prosthetic again. He looked ill at the thought.

For his part, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos presided over several talent-packed tables, including “Frankenstein” with Guillermo del Toro, Jacob Elordi, and Mia Goth; “Jay Kelly” with Noah Baumbach and Adam Sandler; and “Goodbye June,” marking the directing debut of Kate Winslet.

Also present were the principals of “Kpop Demon Hunters,” which already has a deal in place for two sequels. According to Maggie Kang, who was on hand with co-director Chris Appelhans, they have not started a script. Sarandos believes strongly that the original animated film, which could win the Oscar this year, would not have played well in theaters and needed time to ramp up with diehard fans on the Netflix site. (Sony made some millions along the way, as well.) Among many others, director Park Chan-Wook and his “No Other Choice” (Neon) star Lee Byung-hun came over to greet Sarandos.

The other Oscar frontrunner is “Hamnet” (Focus), whose director Chloe Zhao sported a fabulous wine-red sheath. Her star Jessie Buckley (Paul Mescal is in London, in Beatles mode) raved about her director, calling her a “weaver” who brings out the best in everyone.

After attendees dined on beef, french fries and brussel sprouts, Alejandro González Iñárritu presented the Oscar to Cruise, who stars in his upcoming untitled 2026 comedy. The Cruise sizzle reel, expertly edited by ace trailer-maker Mark Woollen, brought down the house, encapsulating over 40 years of memorable movie moments, from “Risky Business,” “Top Gun” “The Color of Money,” and “Rain Man” to “Magnolia,” “Tropic Thunder,” and the endless stream of “Mission: Impossible” flicks.

Underlying the night’s celebratory mood was a sense that things are not well in movieland. While Warner Bros. supported a power table, the storied legacy studio is up for sale, amid a spate of “the sky is falling” stories. This weekend the New York Times offered 25 box office splats and a profile of Puck doomsayer Matt Belloni, and a vivid Ankler story presented one man’s journey across the country through empty theaters.

Roadside Attractions co-president Howard Cohen, whose pickup “Kiss of the Spider Woman” has struggled in theaters, asked: “What can possibly give the industry hope? It has to be different/better films even with all the other systemic issues. We need a reset. Maybe it’s like the transition that happened between the ’60’s studio collapse and the ’70’s New Hollywood. Films like ‘Weapons,’ ‘Sinners,’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ are original and provocative with respect to dealing with contemporary themes, but within an entertainment context and not feeling like homework. The audience is demanding, given all the other variables bearing down on our business. So the bar is high — not unreachable, but high — and we have to get to it.”

Fifth Season CEO Graham Taylor, standing next to his wife, producer and Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor, worries about “cynicism and laziness,” he said. “We need more TV and film fans out here, people who are still watching.”

As Searchlight chief Matthew Greenfield prepares to open his idiosyncratic slate, including Hikari’s “Rental Family” starring Brendan Fraser and “The Testament of Ann Lee,” starring Amanda Seyfried, he believes films have to stand out to grab attention.

Veteran producer Mark Johnson chose to be optimistic. “Nobody uses the words cyclical anymore,” he said. “Next year is going to rebound and we’re going to be fine. Nobody sees it.”

Cynthia Erivo (whose “Wicked: For Good” opens November 21) presented to Debbie Allen, who choreographed the Oscar show a record seven times. Also beloved was veteran production designer Wynn Thomas, the first Black production designer admitted to the Art Directors Guild and hired on a studio motion picture. He designed “Hidden Figures” and “Mars Attacks!” as well as ten films for Spike Lee, from his first, “She’s Gotta Have It,” through “Da Five Bloods.”

An hilarious Lily Tomlin (“Nine to Five”) stumbled through her presentation of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to songwriter/performer Dolly Parton, cheered on by Spielberg and Cruise. Parton, who founded multiple charities including the Dollywood Foundation in Eastern Tennessee, the Imagination Library which has donated 300 million books to kids, and the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services, gave her acceptance speech on video from Nashville.

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