Oscar-winning Actress Diane Keaton Dead at 79

Screen legend Diane Keaton was beloved for her role as Annie Hall in Woody Allen's film of the same name. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File
Screen legend Diane Keaton was beloved for her role as Annie Hall in Woody Allen's film of the same name. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File
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Oscar-winning Actress Diane Keaton Dead at 79

Screen legend Diane Keaton was beloved for her role as Annie Hall in Woody Allen's film of the same name. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File
Screen legend Diane Keaton was beloved for her role as Annie Hall in Woody Allen's film of the same name. Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File

Actress Diane Keaton, known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1977's "Annie Hall" and her role in "The Godfather" films, has died at age 79.

Details were not immediately available and Keaton's loved ones have asked for privacy, a family spokesperson told People, which said the actress died Saturday in California.

Keaton was a frequent collaborator of director Woody Allen, portraying the titular character in "Annie Hall," the charming girlfriend of Allen's comic Alvy Singer, AFP reported.

The film also garnered Oscars for best picture, best director and best original screenplay, cementing Keaton's place as one of the industry's top actresses and an offbeat style icon as well.

The actress made her mark co-starring in eight Allen movies, from "Play It Again, Sam" (1972) to "Manhattan" (1979) and "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993).

In "The Godfather" films, she played Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Al Pacino's Michael Corleone.

Apart from the Allen cannon, fans adored her portrayal as Steve Martin's wife in 1991 comedy "Father of the Bride," as the nervous and doting couple plan an extravagant wedding for their daughter.

Late in her career, Keaton starred in two movies about aging women: "Book Club" (2018), with its message that love has no age, and "Poms" (2019), the story of a terminally ill woman who moves to a retirement community to die, but winds up forming a cheerleading squad.

A BAFTA and Golden Globe winner, Keaton scored Oscar nominations three other times for best actress, for "Reds,Marvin's Room" and "Something's Gotta Give."

'Iconoclastic'

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, home of the Oscars, said in a tribute to Keaton: "Some actors play emotions. Diane Keaton lived inside them."

In 2017, she was honored with a Life Achievement Award by the American Film Institute, which called Keaton "unconventional, iconoclastic and left-of-center."

"I feel so lucky to have spent any time with this marvelous woman, and I'm heartbroken that she is gone," said actress Andie MacDowell, who starred in "Unstrung Hero" (1995), one of a handful of films Keaton directed.

Actress Bette Midler, who starred alongside Keaton in the 1996 comedy "The First Wives Club," wrote on Instagram that Keaton "was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was...oh, la, lala!"

Goldie Hawn, who was also in "The First Wives Club," said Keaton "left us with a trail of fairy dust, filled with particles of light and memories beyond imagination."

Infectious

As the Hollywood sexual harassment scandals detonated in late 2017, cascading from producer Harvey Weinstein to heavyweight actors like Kevin Spacey, old accusations of child sex abuse against Allen by his adoptive daughter Dylan resurfaced.

"Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him," Keaton tweeted in January 2018.

It was a rare encounter with controversy for the beloved actress.

Keaton said she had no "Me Too" complaints despite half a century in the film industry.

"Never. Maybe I just wasn't harassment material," she told AFP in a 2019 interview.

Keaton's infectious, sunny smile lit up the screen across the decades, and she made popular a quirky and liberating fashion sense first seen in "Annie Hall" that featured oversize hats and the lighthearted use of menswear items.

As for aging, Keaton said in the 2019 interview that life actually got easier.

"I think so, because what have you got to lose? It's like it's the truth. That's what it is. You face it, we talk about it," she said.

Born Diane Hall in Los Angeles on January 5, 1946, Keaton was romantically involved with Allen, Pacino and Warren Beatty, but never married.

"Most people in the movies get married at some point and then they divorce. But I've never even got married. I am (a) failure," she joked.

Did she regret it? "I don't think about it a lot but I'm aware of the fact that I'm unusual in that regard, and maybe I did miss out on something -- but then, nobody can have everything, right?"

She is survived by her two children, Dexter and Duke.



Israeli Oscars Entry Evokes Empathy to Palestinians but Irks Government

Basel Adra, from left, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham accept the award for best documentary feature film for "No Other Land" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Basel Adra, from left, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham accept the award for best documentary feature film for "No Other Land" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
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Israeli Oscars Entry Evokes Empathy to Palestinians but Irks Government

Basel Adra, from left, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham accept the award for best documentary feature film for "No Other Land" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Basel Adra, from left, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, and Yuval Abraham accept the award for best documentary feature film for "No Other Land" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The director of Israel's entry for the 2026 Oscars about a Palestinian boy's quest to see the sea hopes it will help arouse compassion in his homeland during so much conflict. Prospects for lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians have rarely looked so bleak after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, two years of war in Gaza and surging settler violence in the West Bank.

However, director and writer Shai Carmeli-Pollak has taken heart from the reception to his film "The Sea" which won Israel's top film prize so was automatically submitted for the foreign-language Oscar prize to be decided in March, Reuters reported.

"I met the audience that came to watch it and it was amazing that people could be emotional and sometimes shed a tear for this story while violence and atrocities happened not far from here," Carmeli-Pollak said in an interview this week after a viewing.

"The Sea" tells the story of Khaled, a Palestinian boy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who fears growing up without seeing the sea and makes the perilous journey alone and without travel papers into Israel to try to reach the coast.

He had recently been turned away at a checkpoint on a school trip to the sea, and his sudden disappearance from home leads his father, an undocumented labourer in Israel, to risk arrest by setting out in search of him.

"The Sea" won Best Picture at September's Ophir awards, the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars, prompting condemnation from Culture Minister Miki Zohar, who pulled funding from the ceremony over the movie's portrayal of the Israeli military.

Israel's government since 2022 has been among the most right-wing in its history, adamantly opposed to Palestinian statehood and committed to expanding settlement in the West Bank.

The 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, has hardened many Israelis towards Palestinians and made criticism of the army more sensitive.

'COMPASSION AND LOVE'

Carmeli-Pollak and the Israeli-Palestinian producer of "The Sea", Baher Agbaria, said it was important to make films that helped people hear each other's stories.

"I hope that the film will open other channels - channels of compassion and love - and give other ways that we can live together in this place," Carmeli-Pollak told Reuters.

Agbaria said it felt surprising to bring a Palestinian story to mainstream cinemas in Israel against the backdrop of the war.

"Because (of) what is happening this is time also for this film, you know, for this kind of story, to listen to the others," he said.

The film was released in cinemas in Israel in July and is still running. At the 2025 Oscars, an Israeli-Palestinian film "No Other Land", about the Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community in the West Bank, won the documentary feature film award, also angering Israel's government.

Carmeli-Pollak, a longtime peace activist, said that even though the government did not want him to represent Israel, he was proud to be part of a community of filmmakers who chose to honour "The Sea".

"I represent every people, like both Israelis and Palestinians, that aspire for peace and for equality and for living together in a different way than this government is working for."


Apple Streaming Service Restored after Brief Outage

FILED - 16 September 2023, US, New York: The Apple logo, taken at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 16 September 2023, US, New York: The Apple logo, taken at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
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Apple Streaming Service Restored after Brief Outage

FILED - 16 September 2023, US, New York: The Apple logo, taken at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 16 September 2023, US, New York: The Apple logo, taken at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

Apple's streaming service resumed for users in the United States after a brief outage late Thursday, Apple's status page showed.

The number of users reporting issues with Apple TV had dropped to 208, from a peak of about 15,000, according to tracking website Downdetector.com.

The company also experienced issues with Apple Music and Apple Arcade services, both of which were also restored, according to its status page.

Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users.


Red Sea Film Festival Launches Mobile App Ahead of Fifth Edition

Red Sea International Film Festival logo
Red Sea International Film Festival logo
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Red Sea Film Festival Launches Mobile App Ahead of Fifth Edition

Red Sea International Film Festival logo
Red Sea International Film Festival logo

The Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled its newly redesigned mobile app, offering a fully integrated digital experience that provides visitors with seamless access to all festival details ahead of its fifth edition, set to take place this December in the historic Al-Balad district of Jeddah.

The updated app enables users to explore the full film lineup, including screening schedules and synopses, browse panel discussions and special events, reserve tickets, and navigate festival venues through interactive maps.

The app is now available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play, serving as an essential companion for festival-goers.