How does a person summarize the 45-year career of Tom Cruise in a four-minute speech? "Mission impossible," said director Alejandro Inarritu on Sunday as Hollywood celebrated the movie star with an honorary Oscar.

Inarritu, who directed Cruise in an untitled film set for release next October, introduced the Top Gun star and said his talent extended beyond the dangerous stunts he has become famous for.

"It is not how far he runs or how high he jumps," Inarritu said. "It's how precisely he decides to move, those tiny calibrations."

Honorary Oscar statuettes were handed out to Cruise and three others selected by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

The 63-year-old Cruise, a four-time Oscar nominee who has never won the award, was chosen for work in films from Risky Business to two Top Gun movies and the Mission: Impossible franchise. He also has become a prominent champion for the movie business as it faces competition from streaming and social media.

Accepting his award, Cruise talked about how seeing movies in a theatre impressed him as a child. "Suddenly the world was so much larger than the one that I knew," he told a crowd of luminaries that included Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ariana Grande. He said he worked every job he could to earn money for movie tickets.

"I will always do everything I can to support this art form and to champion new voices, to protect what makes cinema powerful, hopefully without too many more broken bones," he said to laughter. Cruise broke his ankle while filming a stunt in 2017.

"Making films is not what I do. It's who I am," Cruise added.

The gala also honoured Dolly Parton with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her charitable efforts, including founding a library that has provided more than 300 million books to children. She accepted her award via video.

Other honourees were actor and choreographer Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas.