Pop Goes The News — Actor Jared Leto flew to Mexico on Wednesday to pay tribute to the man who helped him win an Academy Award — Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée.

“There are very few people in the world that have the talent, the skill and the fortitude to create dreams so special over and over and over again,” Leto told an audience at the opening night gala of the Los Cabos International Film Festival.

Listing some of Vallée’s films — including Dallas Buyers Club and Wild — Leto said the Montreal filmmaker “reminds us that through great struggle and the elusive search for truth there is unique beauty to behold that can change us forever.”

Leto earned the supporting actor Oscar last year for his role as trans woman Rayon in Vallée’s acclaimed Dallas Buyers Club.

The Los Cabos film festival opened Wednesday night with a screening of Vallée’s latest, Demolition. The festival will also show his 2005 film C.R.A.Z.Y. and 2011’s Café de Flore.

Leto recalled shooting a scene for Dallas Buyers Club in which his character says goodbye to her father and offers forgiveness. Watch below:

Vallée seemed touched by the honour. “Tonight I feel like a hero,” he told the audience. “You make me feel like a hero.”

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Pop Goes The News is a guest of the Los Cabos International Film Festival.