If you ask me, Angelina Jolie is quickly becoming the Audrey Hepburn of our time.

Gorgeous and intelligent, she’s purely a joy to look at but, more importantly, she’s chosen to live a life of service and humanitarianism—and she continually inspires with her well-articulated words.

Jolie, who won Best Supporting Actress for the 1999 film “Girl, Interrupted,” was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences once again on Saturday night with an honorary Oscar.

She was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 2013 Governors Awards. The award is given to those in Hollywood “whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.” (Past winners, not shockingly, have included Audrey Hepburn, as well as Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Lewis, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor.) 

“It’s quite overwhelming,” Jolie began her almost poetic acceptance speech. She thanked her son Maddox and partner Brad Pitt, who were both in the audience, and she also drew attention to Louis Zamperini, the World War II veteran and former POW who is the subject of her next film. However, the person that she spoke about the most, and with distinctive love and respect, was her late mother.

“She wasn’t really the best critic since she never had anything unkind to say,” Jolie said about her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died in 2007 after a battle with ovarian cancer, “but she did give me love and confidence. Above all, she was very clear that nothing would mean anything if I didn’t live a life of use to others. And I didn’t know what that meant for a long time. […] It was only when I began to travel and look and live beyond my home that I understand my responsibility to others.”

Jolie then went on to remind her audience that many people in our world don’t have the luxuries and the sheltered lives and the simple privileges that many of us often take for granted.

Watch her emotional and inspiring speech.

Bonus: Watch footage of Hepburn’s award presentation. 

The Academy’s Board of Governors voted to confer this award to Hepburn on January 12, 1993, but she died on January 20th. The award was accepted on her behalf by her son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer and was presented by Gregory Peck at the 65th Annual Academy Awards.

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Ed: Bryonie Wise