Oscarwinning

Keaton was best known for her roles in Annie Hall, Reds and The Godfather films.

American actress Diane Keaton, known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1977’s Annie Hall and her role in The Godfather films, has died at the age of 79.

Keaton died in California and her loved ones have asked for privacy, a family spokesperson told People magazine on Saturday.

Keaton, who appeared in more than 60 films, stood out in Hollywood with a personal style that favoured androgynous looks: suits, turtleneck sweaters and her trademark hats.

The actress shot to fame in the 1970s with her role as Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy as well as her collaborations with director Woody Allen.

Keaton frequently worked with Allen, portraying the titular character in Annie Hall, the charming girlfriend of Allen’s comic Alvy Singer.

“It was an idealised version of me, let’s put it that way,” Keaton said about the film in an interview with the United States TV network CBS News in 2004.

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.

She made a total of eight films with Allen, including 1979’s Manhattan.

Her star-making performances in the 1970s were not a flash in the pan as she would continue to charm new generations for decades, thanks in part to a longstanding collaboration with filmmaker Nancy Meyers, with whom she made four films.

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.

Her many beloved films included The First Wives Club, Father of the Bride, The Family Stone and the Book Club movies.

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

“I think I was really afraid of men and also very attracted to extremely talented people that were dazzling,” she told Elle magazine in 2015. “I don’t think that makes for a good marriage with a person like me, someone who just didn’t adjust well.”

Keaton is survived by her two children, Dexter and Duke, whom she adopted in her 50s.

Redford was a liberal activist and godfather for independent cinema under the name of one of his best-loved characters, the Sundance Kid.

Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning actor, director and godfather for independent cinema as Sundance founder, has died at the age of 89.

Redford died “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah – the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” publicist Cindi Berger said in a statement Tuesday.

No cause of death was provided.

The iconic actor and director is best known for his acclaimed performances in All the President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The tousled-haired and freckled heartthrob made his breakthrough alongside Paul Newman as the affable outlaw in the hippy Western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969.

Redford made hearts beat faster in romantic roles such as “Out of Africa,” got political in “The Candidate” and “All the President’s Men” and skewered his golden-boy image in roles like the alcoholic ex-rodeo champ in “The Electric Horseman” and middle-aged millionaire who offers to buy sex in “Indecent Proposal.”

He never won the best actor Oscar, but his first outing as a director – the 1980 family drama “Ordinary People” – won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.

Despite their chemistry and long personal friendship, Redford was never to team up again with Newman, who died in 2008.

“Butch Cassidy” made blue-eyed Redford an overnight star but he never felt comfortable with celebrity or the male starlet image that persisted late into his 60s.

“People have been so busy relating to how I look, it’s a miracle I didn’t become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm. It’s not easy being Robert Redford,” he once told New York magazine.

His wavy blond hair and boyish grin made him the most desired of leading men, but he worked hard to transcend his looks – whether through his political advocacy, his willingness to take on unglamorous roles or his dedication to providing a platform for low-budget movies.

Intensely private, he bought land in remote Utah in the early 1970s for his family retreat and enjoyed a level of privacy unknown to most superstars. He was married for more than 25 years to his first wife, before their divorce in 1985. In 2009, he married for a second time, to German artist and longtime partner Sibylle Szaggars.

He used the millions he made to launch the Sundance Institute and Festival in the 1970s, promoting independent filmmaking long before small and quirky were fashionable. The festival has become one of the most influential independent film showcases in the world.

Redford used his star status to also quietly champion environmental causes such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation.

“Some people have analysis. I have Utah,” he once remarked.

Although he never showed an interest in entering politics, he often espoused a liberal viewpoint. In a 2017 interview, during the presidency of Donald Trump, he told Esquire magazine that “politics is in a very dark place right now” and that Trump should “quit for our benefit”.

In 2001, Redford won an honorary, or lifetime achievement, Oscar.

JERUSALEM — Palestinian Oscar-winning director Basel Adra said Israeli soldiers conducted a raid at his home in the occupied West Bank over the weekend, searching for him and going through his wife’s phone.

Israeli settlers attacked his village Saturday, injuring two of his brothers and one cousin, Adra told the Associated Press. He accompanied them to the hospital. While there, he said that he heard from family in the village that nine Israeli soldiers had stormed his home.

The soldiers asked his wife, Suha, of his whereabouts and went through her phone while his 9-month-old daughter was home. They also briefly detained one of his uncles, he said.

Adra spent the night outside the village, unable to get home and check on his family because soldiers were blocking the village entrance and he was scared of being detained, he said.

Israel’s military said soldiers were in the village after Palestinians had thrown rocks, injuring two Israeli civilians. It said its forces were still in the village, searching the area and questioning people.

Adra said settlers attacked the Palestinians on their land, and denied throwing rocks or seeing anyone from the village do so.

Videos recorded by Adra’s cousin and viewed by the AP showed settlers attacking a man Adra identified as his brother, Adam, who was hospitalized with bruising to his left hand, elbow and chest, according to hospital records shared with the AP.

In another video, a settler chases a solidarity activist through an olive grove, tackling her to the ground.

Adra has spent his career as a journalist and filmmaker chronicling settler violence in Masafer Yatta, the southern reaches of the West Bank where he was born. After settlers attacked his co-director, Hamdan Ballal, in March, he told the AP that he felt they were being targeted more intensely since winning the Oscar.

He described Saturday’s events as “horrific.”

“Even if you are just filming the settlers, the army comes and chases you, searches your house,” he said. “The whole system is built to attack us, to terrify us, to make us very scared.”

Another co-director, Yuval Abraham, said he was “terrified for Basel.”

“What happened today in his village, we’ve seen this dynamic again and again, where the Israeli settlers brutally attack a Palestinian village and later on the army comes, and attacks the Palestinians,” Abraham said.

“No Other Land,” which won an Oscar this year for best documentary, depicts the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. Ballal and Adra made the joint Palestinian-Israeli production with Israeli directors Abraham and Rachel Szor.

The film has won a string of international awards, starting at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024. It has also drawn ire in Israel and abroad, such as when Miami Beach proposed ending the lease of a movie theater that screened the documentary.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for a future state and view Jewish settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to more than 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers.

The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents, mostly Arab Bedouins, to be expelled. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained, but soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards, and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.

During the war in Gaza, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank during wide-scale military operations. There has also been a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians, as well as a surge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Frankel writes for the Associated Press.

Odeh Hadalin, an activist, football player and participant in the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land, has been shot in the chest and killed by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank. The suspect, Yinon Levi, has been under sanctions by the EU and the US.

A must-watch romantic comedy has just landed on BBC iPlayer.

An Academy Award-winning period drama starring an unrecognisable A-lister is now streaming for free.

BBC iPlayer has just added Shakespeare in Love to its library, ready for theatre and romcom lovers to devour.

Released in 1998, the star-studded film features Oscar winners Gwyneth Paltrow, Colin Firth and Ben Affleck. It also stars Dame Judi Dench in a role that almost completely disguises the acclaimed actress.

For those who missed the hit romantic drama, it follows young playwright William Shakespeare (played by Joseph Fiennes) as he is battling writer’s block.

While looking for a new muse, William meets his ideal woman, Viola (Paltrow), and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet.

Dame Dench plays Queen Elizabeth I, donning the hair, makeup and 16th century garments to fit the royal part. Despite being on screen for around eight minutes, Dench’s performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The drama’s accolades didn’t stop there, as Shakespeare in Love also took home the Best Picture prize, alongside the Best Costume; Best Original Music; Best Screenplay, and Best Art Direction awards. Paltrow also bagged the Best Leading Actress gong, which remains her only Oscar win to date.

Directed by John Madden, the period drama has an impressive 92% Rotten Tomatoes score. The critics’ consensus reads: “Endlessly witty, visually rapturous, and sweetly romantic, Shakespeare in Love is a delightful romantic comedy that succeeds on nearly every level.”

Casual moviegoers similarly rave about the nineties hit, with one viewer writing: “Incredibly heart-warming and wildly entertaining, this movie has something for everybody, and it is so much fun to watch. I definitely recommend it for romance and comedy fans!”

A second said: “I absolutely love this movie, it’s a timeless classic and an absolute must see. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll fall in love with the characters.

“It’s quoted almost daily in my household, and rightfully so! If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend this movie!”

Meanwhile, a third penned: “Simply put, this is a fun film that never lacks for comedy. Everyone in this film portrays their parts with elegance. And as if to top the entire film off, Dame Judi Dench plays a rather fantastically entertaining Queen Elizabeth I.”

Shakespeare in Love is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.