'Girl of My Dreams': Ryan Gosling Gushes Over Wife Eva Mendes During Santa Barbara Film Festival Speech

Ryan Gosling has a life he could only dream of!

On Saturday, January 13, the Barbie star, 43, was awarded the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

In his speech, the heartthrob called out his wife of eight years, Eva Mendes, whom he shares two daughters with.

"Most importantly, I got to meet the girl of my dreams, Eva Mendes, and have two dream children," he stated.

"I dreamed of one-day making movies, and now, movies have made my life a dream," Gosling gushed of his career, which led him to meet Mendes while on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines.

Elsewhere during his acceptance speech, Gosling spilled he was "not prepared" for the moment, joking he "should have had more champagne."

The patriarch then thanked Greta Gerwig, whom he worked with on Barbie, and Steve Carell, whom he acted with in The Big Short and Crazy, Stupid, Love, as they had just performed touching tributes about the star.

"It's hard to imagine being at a point in my career where I'm standing up here tonight," Gosling added.

"... It's just that it's Kirk Douglas. He's one of the first true icons of cinema ... he is completely and utterly in the class of his own, and I’m … just Ken?" he quipped.

"Up until this point, I've only ever thought about just how much cinema had done for me. I had never really thought about what I've done for cinema, as far back as I can remember," the actor stated.

Gosling then paid tribute to his mom, Donna, noting she "found [his] weak spot" and showed him "how to create [his] own story."

"That open door wasn't an elevator that went straight to the top, but I was able to help my mom pay the rent. And by playing other people, I was learning who I was in the process," he continued.

The Oscar winner later touched back to his relationship with Gerwig, 40.

"And I don't even know where to start with Greta," he began. "Even though she was making one of the biggest films of all time against all the odds in the world, she never allowed the weight of the task to steal the joy away from the moment. She never let the importance of it all cloud what was truly important, which is to never forget how lucky we are to do what we do."

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The La La Land star also noted his early influences in film, naming directors Cecil B. DeMille, Garry Marshall, and Stanley Kubrick, as well as actors Charlton Heston, Yul Brenner, Goldie Hawn, and Kurt Russell.

People reported in Gosling's speech.