The best Diane Keaton movies are Annie Hall (1977), The Godfather (1972), Reds (1981), Manhattan (1979) and Something’s Gotta Give (2003). Across a career that ran from 1970 into the 2020s, Diane Keaton built one of the most distinctive filmographies in American cinema, moving effortlessly between screwball comedy, heavyweight drama and beloved mainstream hits. This guide ranks her 25 best films, explains where her career began and ended, and answers the questions people most often search for about her work.
Diane Keaton passed away on October 11, 2025, at the age of 79. This guide has been updated to reflect her complete, final filmography and to celebrate the full arc of her career.
Who Was Diane Keaton?
Diane Keaton, born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, was an American actress, director and producer whose career spanned more than five decades. She first drew attention on stage in the original Broadway production of Hair in 1968, then moved into film with a small role in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970).
Her breakthrough came two years later playing Kay Adams in The Godfather (1972), but it was her ongoing collaboration with writer-director Woody Allen that defined her early career and, eventually, won her an Academy Award for Annie Hall (1977). Keaton went on to prove she was far more than a comic actress, earning further Oscar nominations for Reds (1981) and Marvin’s Room (1996), while also becoming one of the most bankable stars of mainstream comedy in films like Father of the Bride (1991), The First Wives Club (1996) and Something’s Gotta Give (2003).
Beyond acting, Keaton directed films and television, published photography books, worked as a real estate developer known for restoring historic homes, and became known for a personal style — men’s ties, wide-brimmed hats, turtlenecks — that made her as recognisable off screen as on it.
Quick Facts About Diane Keaton
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Diane Hall (stage name Diane Keaton) |
| Born | January 5, 1946, Los Angeles, California |
| Died | October 11, 2025, age 79 |
| Years active | 1968–2023 |
| Academy Award | Best Actress, Annie Hall (1977) |
| Oscar nominations | Reds (1981), Marvin’s Room (1996), plus Best Actress win for Annie Hall |
| Frequent collaborator | Woody Allen (8 films together) |
| Box office | Films she appeared in grossed over $1.1 billion in North America |
| Notable other work | Director, photographer, real estate preservationist |
The 25 Best Diane Keaton Movies, Ranked
This ranking blends critical reputation, cultural impact and how well each performance represents her range, from comedy to devastating drama.
1. Annie Hall (1977)
Her signature role. Playing the endearingly scattered title character opposite Woody Allen, Keaton won the Academy Award for Best Actress and helped redefine the romantic comedy for a generation. The film swept the Oscars, including Best Picture, and Keaton’s wardrobe on screen — vests, ties, baggy trousers — became a genuine fashion movement. You can see its full awards history on IMDb.
2. The Godfather (1972)
As Kay Adams, the outsider who marries into the Corleone family, Keaton grounded Francis Ford Coppola’s crime epic in something recognisably human. It remains one of the most acclaimed films ever made and the role that first put her on the map. It is regularly ranked among the greatest films of all time by outlets like the American Film Institute.
3. Reds (1981)
Opposite Warren Beatty, Keaton played journalist and activist Louise Bryant in this sprawling historical drama about the Russian Revolution’s American witnesses. It earned her a second Academy Award nomination and is widely considered one of her finest dramatic performances. Read more about the real Louise Bryant on Britannica.
4. Manhattan (1979)
Keaton plays Mary Wilke, a sharp, self-assured intellectual, in Woody Allen’s black-and-white love letter to New York City. The film is frequently cited among the best of the era, and Keaton’s chemistry with Allen anchors its most memorable scenes.
5. Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
A career-redefining late hit. Keaton plays a successful playwright who falls for a much younger man’s father (Jack Nicholson), and the role earned her another Golden Globe nomination while proving that Keaton could still headline a box-office hit in her 50s. See the film’s full cast and crew on IMDb.
6. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
A stark departure from her comic work, this drama cast Keaton as a schoolteacher whose nightlife turns dangerous. Critics praised her willingness to take on the film’s difficult material the same year Annie Hall made her a star.
7. Marvin’s Room (1996)
Keaton plays a woman caring for her dying father who reconnects with her estranged sister (Meryl Streep) after a leukemia diagnosis. Her performance earned an Academy Award nomination and remains one of the most emotionally raw of her career.
8. Sleeper (1973)
An early Woody Allen collaboration and a showcase for Keaton’s gift for physical comedy, set in a satirical vision of the future. It cemented the comic chemistry that would carry through their next several films together.
9. Love and Death (1975)
A parody of Russian literature and Bergman-esque philosophy, this is one of the funniest of the Allen-Keaton films and shows Keaton’s ease with rapid-fire, absurdist dialogue.
10. The First Wives Club (1996)
Alongside Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn, Keaton plays one of three ex-wives who band together for revenge on their exes. It became a cultural touchstone for its era, spawned a devoted fan following, and remains one of her most quoted films. It also inspired conversation about how Hollywood portrays women over 40, a topic still explored in outlets like The Guardian’s film section.
11. Father of the Bride (1991)
As Nina Banks, the calm centre opposite Steve Martin’s anxious father-of-the-bride, Keaton helped make this remake a massive commercial hit and a holiday-season staple that’s still watched every wedding season.
12. Baby Boom (1987)
Keaton plays a high-powered executive whose life is upended when she unexpectedly inherits a baby. It’s one of her most purely enjoyable comic performances and a favourite of fans discovering her filmography for the first time.
13. Crimes of the Heart (1986)
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Keaton stars alongside Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek as one of three Southern sisters confronting family secrets. It’s an underrated ensemble showcase for her dramatic range, and you can read more about the original stage production on the Pulitzer Prize website.
14. Interiors (1978)
Keaton’s first fully dramatic role for Woody Allen, playing one of three sisters navigating their parents’ divorce. Stark and Bergman-influenced, it proved Keaton could carry serious material with no comedy to lean on.
15. Radio Days (1987)
A nostalgic ensemble piece from Woody Allen, with Keaton appearing as a nightclub singer in one of the film’s most charming sequences.
16. The Godfather Part II (1974)
Keaton returns as Kay, now increasingly disillusioned with her husband Michael’s descent into the family business, in a sequel many critics consider equal to or better than the original.
17. Play It Again, Sam (1972)
The first Keaton-Allen collaboration, adapted from Allen’s own stage play, established the comic rapport that would define much of the next decade of both of their careers.
18. Shoot the Moon (1982)
A quietly devastating drama about a marriage falling apart, with Keaton delivering one of her most underappreciated dramatic performances opposite Albert Finney.
19. The Little Drummer Girl (1984)
A change of pace into spy-thriller territory, based on the John le Carré novel, with Keaton playing an actress recruited into an intelligence operation.
20. Mrs. Soffel (1984)
A period drama in which Keaton plays a warden’s wife who falls for a condemned prisoner, showing yet another register in her range during the mid-1980s.
21. The Godfather Part III (1990)
Keaton’s final appearance as Kay Corleone brings the trilogy full circle, closing out one of the most iconic character arcs in film history.
22. Because I Said So (2007)
A lighter, mother-daughter comedy that leans on Keaton’s gift for warm, slightly overbearing maternal comic energy, a mode she would return to often in her later career.
23. Morning Glory (2010)
Keaton has a supporting turn as a veteran newscaster in this comedy about the television news industry, working alongside Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams.
24. Book Club (2018) and Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)
Alongside Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, Keaton anchors this hit ensemble comedy about four friends navigating love and life later on. The sequel, released in 2023, is among her final film credits and reunited the same core cast one more time.
25. Poms (2019)
One of Keaton’s last leading roles, playing a woman who starts a cheerleading squad in a retirement community, showing she was still willing to headline new, purely fun projects late in her career.
Diane Keaton and Woody Allen: The Full Collaboration
No discussion of Diane Keaton movies is complete without the films she made with writer-director Woody Allen. Their creative partnership, and a real-life relationship in the early 1970s, produced some of the most acclaimed comedies of the decade.
| Film | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Play It Again, Sam | 1972 | Their first film together |
| Sleeper | 1973 | Science-fiction comedy |
| Love and Death | 1975 | Literary parody |
| Annie Hall | 1977 | Won Keaton the Academy Award |
| Interiors | 1978 | Allen’s first pure drama, Keaton in a dramatic role |
| Manhattan | 1979 | Widely considered one of Allen’s best films |
| Radio Days | 1987 | Ensemble nostalgia piece |
These seven films (sometimes counted as eight with later cameo work) are the backbone of Keaton’s reputation as one of American comedy’s defining actresses. For background on Allen’s own filmography and its critical reception, see this overview on Wikipedia, or read more about his broader body of work on IMDb.
It’s worth noting how much this creative partnership shaped the language of modern romantic comedy. Film historians often point to the Annie Hall screenplay, co-written by Allen and Marshall Brickman, as a turning point for the genre because it let two flawed, funny, articulate people fall in and out of love without a tidy resolution. You can read more about the writing process and cultural impact of the film in retrospectives from outlets like The New York Times film desk and Roger Ebert’s archive.
Diane Keaton’s Oscar and Award-Nominated Roles
Diane Keaton was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times across her career, winning once.
- Annie Hall (1977) — Won, Best Actress
- Reds (1981) — Nominated, Best Actress
- Marvin’s Room (1996) — Nominated, Best Actress
- Something’s Gotta Give (2003) — Golden Globe nomination, widely considered a snub for an Oscar nomination
She also received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017, recognising her full body of work, and a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Annie Hall. She won two Golden Globe Awards across her career and received numerous other nominations for both film and television work. You can see her full official awards history on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences database, the Golden Globes official site, and the BAFTA awards database.
Beyond acting honours, Keaton was also recognised for her preservation work in architecture. She restored and sold several historically significant Los Angeles homes over the years, and her interest in design was documented in interviews with publications like Architectural Digest.
Diane Keaton’s Most Popular Mainstream Hits
While critics often point to her Oscar-nominated dramas, several Diane Keaton movies became genuine mainstream phenomena that introduced her to new generations of fans.
- Father of the Bride (1991) — a holiday and wedding-season staple for over 30 years
- The First Wives Club (1996) — a defining 1990s comedy about friendship and reinvention
- Something’s Gotta Give (2003) — one of the biggest romantic comedies of the 2000s
- Book Club (2018) — proof her box-office appeal endured into her 70s
These films show why Diane Keaton’s filmography connects with such a wide audience: she was equally credible as an art-house dramatic lead and as the star of a Friday-night comedy. Box office trackers like Box Office Mojo and The Numbers still list several of these titles among the most successful comedies of their respective decades, a testament to how consistently Keaton drew audiences across nearly fifty years.
Where to Watch Diane Keaton Movies
Streaming availability changes often, so always check current listings before you commit to a platform. As a general rule:
- Paramount+ tends to carry The Godfather trilogy, since Paramount Pictures produced the films.
- Warner Bros. and MGM catalogue titles, including several of her 1980s dramas, rotate through services like Max and Amazon Prime Video.
- MGM+ and Hulu have carried Something’s Gotta Give and other 2000s-era titles at various points.
- Nearly all of her filmography is available to rent or buy digitally through Amazon, Apple TV and Google Play even when it isn’t included with a subscription.
For an up-to-date, film-by-film breakdown of exactly where to stream, search the title directly on JustWatch, which aggregates real-time streaming availability across regions. You can also check individual studio libraries directly, including Paramount+, Max, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV, since older catalogue titles frequently move between these services as licensing deals change.
Diane Keaton Movies by Decade
1970s: The breakthrough decade
Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), The Godfather (1972), Play It Again, Sam (1972), Sleeper (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Love and Death (1975), Annie Hall (1977), Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979).
1980s: Dramatic range
Reds (1981), Shoot the Moon (1982), The Little Drummer Girl (1984), Mrs. Soffel (1984), Crimes of the Heart (1986), Baby Boom (1987), Radio Days (1987), The Good Mother (1988).
1990s: Mainstream stardom
The Godfather Part III (1990), Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), Marvin’s Room (1996), The First Wives Club (1996), Hanging Up (2000, released just before the decade turned).
2000s–2020s: Late-career leading lady
Something’s Gotta Give (2003), The Family Stone (2005), Because I Said So (2007), Morning Glory (2010), The Big Wedding (2013), Book Club (2018), Poms (2019), Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023).
Her Final Film Roles
Diane Keaton continued working well into her seventies. Her later credits include Poms (2019), in which she led an ensemble cast as a retiree starting a cheerleading team, and Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023), a sequel to her 2018 hit that reunited her with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen for one more adventure. These films, made when she was in her seventies, show an actress who never stopped taking on new leading roles until close to the very end of her life.
Legacy: Why Diane Keaton Mattered
Diane Keaton’s filmography resists easy categorisation, and that was always the point. In the same decade she won an Oscar for a comedy about a chaotic love affair, she was also earning nominations for playing a real-life revolutionary journalist and a schoolteacher’s dark double life. She could headline a $100 million studio comedy and an art-house character study in the same stretch of her career.
Her influence extended past acting. Her androgynous, menswear-inspired style in Annie Hall is still cited by fashion writers decades later, and her work as a director and producer, along with her books of photography, showed a creative range that few of her peers matched. When she died in October 2025, tributes from collaborators across generations of Hollywood pointed to the same thing: an actress who never repeated herself and never stopped being recognisably, entirely herself on screen. You can read more about her life and passing in this Reuters obituary and this BBC News tribute.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Diane Keaton’s best movie?
Most critics and fans point to Annie Hall (1977), which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress and is considered one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made. The Godfather and Reds are commonly cited as close runners-up.
How many movies did Diane Keaton make?
Diane Keaton appeared in more than 50 feature films across a career that spanned from 1970 to the early 2020s, in addition to television and stage work.
What movies did Diane Keaton and Woody Allen make together?
Their collaborations include Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan and Radio Days, spanning from 1972 to 1987.
When did Diane Keaton die?
Diane Keaton died on October 11, 2025, at the age of 79.
What was Diane Keaton’s last movie?
Her later credits included Poms (2019) and Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023), among her final film roles.
Did Diane Keaton win an Oscar?
Yes. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Annie Hall in 1978 (for the 1977 film), and was later nominated for Reds and Marvin’s Room.
What was Diane Keaton’s relationship with Woody Allen?
Keaton and Allen dated in the early 1970s and remained close friends and frequent collaborators for decades afterward, making eight films together in total.
Is Diane Keaton in The Godfather Part III?
Yes. She reprised her role as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather Part III (1990), closing out her arc across the entire trilogy.
What genre was Diane Keaton best known for?
She was best known for comedy, especially her collaborations with Woody Allen, but she built an equally respected career in drama, with Oscar nominations for Reds and Marvin’s Room.
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For more background reading on her life and work, see her full profile on Wikipedia, her complete credits on IMDb, and her filmography archive on Turner Classic Movies.
