As a tribute to her enduring legacy, we made a list of Diane Keaton’s 10 best films ranked from great to greatest.
Diane Keaton, the Academy Award-winning actress who defined generations of cinema with her singular talent and style, passed away on October 11, 2025, at age 79, from bacterial pneumonia. Across six decades, Keaton created an unparalleled body of work that moved seamlessly between comedy and drama, quirky charm and devastating emotional depth. This list celebrates Diane Keaton’s best films, ranked from great to greatest; ten performances that showcase why she remains one of American cinema’s most beloved and irreplaceable talents. From ensemble comedies to biting dramas, from Woody Allen collaborations to late-career triumphs, these films capture the essence of an actress who never stopped taking risks, challenging herself, and captivating audiences with her unmistakable presence.
10. The Family Stone (2005)
Thomas Bezucha
In this holiday ensemble comedy-drama, Keaton plays Sybil Stone, the warm but ailing matriarch of a boisterous New England family gathering for Christmas. When her oldest son brings home his uptight girlfriend, Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker, Hocus Pocus), the family’s tight-knit dynamics are tested, revealing chaos and heartbreak over the holiday weekend. Keaton anchors the film with a performance that feels effortlessly maternal; she’s the glue holding this fractious family together even as her health quietly deteriorates.
While The Family Stone divided critics upon release, it has matured into a certifiable Christmas cult classic, largely due to Keaton’s ability to ground the film’s broader comedic moments with genuine poignancy. Her scenes opposite Craig T. Nelson (The Incredibles) as her devoted husband showcase honest tenderness that elevates the material. Though she shares screen time with an impressive cast of imposing talent, Keaton’s presence radiates throughout every frame, reminding us that sometimes the smallest gestures, a knowing glance, a gentle touch, speak volumes about love and family. Already a bona fide tearjerker, out of all the films listed, this might be the hardest one to revisit come Christmas.
9. Shoot the Moon (1982)
Alan Parker
Alan Parker’s searing domestic drama showcases Keaton in one of her rawest, most fervently exposed performances. She plays Faith Dunlap, a mother of four whose 15-year marriage to a successful writer, George (Albert Finney, Erin Brockovich), is imploding. As her husband moves out to be with his mistress, Faith must navigate the wreckage of her family while discovering her own resilience and rage.
This is Keaton stripped of her trademark quirks and comedy. Here she’s all vulnerability and barely contained fury. The film doesn’t flinch from the ugliness of marital dissolution, and neither does Keaton. Her performance is a master class in restraint that occasionally erupts into devastating, charged outbursts. Shoot the Moon remains one of Keaton’s most overlooked achievements, perhaps because it’s so uncomfortable to watch. There’s no redemption arc, no easy answers; Just the brutal honesty of a woman learning to survive the destruction of everything she built. It’s powerful, uncomfortable, and proof that Keaton could disappear completely into dramatic territory when given material worthy of her depth.
8. Father of the Bride (1991)
Charles Shyer
As Nina Banks, the patient and loving wife to Steve Martin’s (Only Murders in the Building) increasingly unhinged George, Keaton brings warmth and wisdom to this charming remake of the 1950 classic. When their daughter Annie announces her engagement, George spirals into riotous panic, while Nina serves as the family’s incandescent rock, managing her husband’s neuroses and the mounting chaos of wedding planning.
Keaton’s performance here is deceptively simple; she makes it look easy to be the straight woman to Martin’s broader comedy while creating a fully realized character. Her Nina is no mere supporting player, though; she’s a graceful matriarch who clearly runs this household with humor and an unshakeable love for her family. The chemistry between Keaton and Martin has an authentic rhythm, selling us completely on this long marriage.
While the film justifiably belongs to Martin’s uproarious meltdowns, Keaton energizes every scene she’s in, whether she’s gently talking George down from a ledge or sharing a lovely dance with him. Father of the Bride became a massive commercial success and spawned a so-so sequel that focused more on shenanigans than sincerity. Both cemented Keaton’s status as America’s favorite movie mom.
7. The First Wives Club (1996)
Hugh Wilson
Keaton leads an all-star cast alongside Bette Midler (Hocus Pocus 2) and Goldie Hawn (Private Benjamin) in this cultural phenomenon about three college friends reunited by tragedy who seek revenge on the ex-husbands who left them for younger women. As Annie MacDuggan Paradis, a timid housewife who’s been psychologically demolished by her husband’s abandonment, Keaton creates a character arc that moves from doormat to empowered woman with zany flair and relatable authenticity.
The film taps into the zeitgeist of mid-’90s feminism while delivering laugh-out-loud comedy and real friendship dynamics. Keaton’s chemistry with Midler and Hawn is electric; these three legends clearly relished working together, and their joy is infectious. Annie’s transformation from self-doubting to self-assured provides the film’s emotional core, and Keaton plays every beat perfectly. The First Wives Club was a gigantic box office hit and a touchstone for women of a certain age, proving that films centered on female friendship and autonomy could dominate the box office. Its impact on popular culture, particularly that iconic “You Don’t Own Me” musical finale, remains as influential as ever decades later. What a shame that a planned sequel never materialized.
6. Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Woody Allen
This criminally underrated Woody Allen comedy reunites Keaton with her frequent collaborator in a delightful tip of the hat to classic noir films. She plays Carol Lipton, a middle-aged Manhattanite whose suspicions about a neighbor’s involvement in his wife’s death reignite her passion for life and nearly destroy her marriage to the skeptical Larry (Allen). What makes this film special is watching Keaton command the screen with such vivacious energy. Carol is curious, impulsive, and utterly alive in ways that feel liberating for both the character and the actress.
The film pops with the familiar chemistry Keaton and Allen perfected across multiple collaborations, but here there’s a maturity and ease to their repartee that only comes from years of working together. Keaton makes Carol’s amateur sleuthing funny and oddly touching, as we realize her obsession with this mystery is really about reclaiming excitement in her own life. The film’s climactic sequence in a movie theater, complete with a Lady from Shanghai homage, captures Keaton’s genius for comedy. Manhattan Murder Mystery deserves far more recognition in the Allen-Keaton canon.
5. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
Richard Brooks
In this dark and daring departure from her comedic persona, Keaton delivers her most haunting performance as Theresa Dunn, a Catholic schoolteacher for deaf children who lives a dangerous double life cruising singles bars for increasingly risky sexual encounters.
Based on Judith Rossner’s hot-button novel, the film explores themes of female sexuality, self-destruction, and the darkness lurking beneath 1970s sexual liberation. Keaton fearlessly inhabits Theresa’s contradictions—devoted teacher by day, reckless thrill-seeker by night—without ever making her simply a victim or a cautionary tale. The performance earned Keaton serious dramatic credibility and showed Hollywood she could handle complex, troubling material along with her contemporaries.
Richard Brooks’ direction doesn’t shy away from the ugliness of Theresa’s journey, and Keaton matches that unflinching honesty in every frame. The film’s shocking, unforgettable conclusion remains controversial, but the power of Keaton’s work is impossible to ignore. This was released the same year as Annie Hall, providing stark evidence of her remarkable range. With its finale designed to make your blood run ice cold, Looking for Mr. Goodbar is difficult viewing, but essential for understanding the full scope of Keaton’s artistic courage and willingness to take genuine risks.
4. Baby Boom (1987)
Charles Shyer
Keaton is absolutely radiant as J.C. Wiatt, a high-powered Manhattan management consultant whose carefully ordered life implodes when she unexpectedly inherits a toddler. Forced to choose between her career and motherhood, she eventually relocates to rural Vermont where she discovers her maternal instincts and an entrepreneurial spirit by turning her homemade baby food into a business empire. Baby Boom works because Keaton makes J.C.’s transformation feel organic rather than contrived. We believe every step of her journey from ice queen executive to fulfilled mother and businessperson.
The film is a perfect time capsule of the 1980s working woman’s anxieties, but Keaton’s performance transcends the era’s dated gender politics with real warmth and whimsical brilliance. Her physical comedy as a woman utterly unprepared for motherhood is priceless, particularly in scenes involving diaper changes and country house disasters. Yet she never makes J.C. a punchline or needing to be saved by a man. Instead, Keaton crafts a character we can completely root for, someone learning to define success on her own terms. Baby Boom remains deeply rewatchable precisely because of Keaton’s committed, charming performance that balances comedy with real demonstrative stakes.
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
Francis Ford Coppola
In Francis Ford Coppola’s masterful sequel, Keaton deepens her portrayal of Kay Adams Corleone, transforming her from the naive outsider of the first film into a woman of devastating moral clarity. As Michael (Al Pacino, Serpico) descends further into the darkness of his criminal empire, Kay serves as his moral conscience, ultimately making an unthinkable choice to protect her children and assert her own agency.
Keaton’s performance builds to a shattering confrontation scene where Kay reveals a terrible secret to Michael. It’s one of the most powerful moments in American cinema, and Keaton holds her own against Pacino’s volcanic intensity. She makes Kay’s evolution from complicit wife to active resistor feel completely authentic, never losing our sympathy even as she makes brutal choices. While The Godfather Part II is primarily Michael’s tragedy, Keaton ensures Kay is no mere accessory to his downfall. She represents everything Michael has lost in his quest for power: love, family, redemption.
She’s not just playing a mob wife. She’s playing the audience’s conscience. And she does it with precision, intelligence, and a kind of suppressed fury that lingers long after the credits roll. In a film crowded with legends, Keaton stands toe-to-toe and delivers a career-best dramatic performance.
2. Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
Nancy Meyers
Nancy Meyers’ romantic comedy gave Keaton one of the great roles of her later career and earned her a well-deserved Oscar nomination. She plays Erica Barry, a successful playwright who unexpectedly falls for Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson, Chinatown), an aging playboy dating her daughter. When Harry suffers a heart attack at Erica’s Hamptons beach house, the forced proximity ignites an attraction neither anticipated.
Keaton is luminous here, playing a woman rediscovering romance and passion in ways that feel revolutionary for Hollywood’s treatment of older women. Her famous crying scene, where Erica processes her heartbreak while writing, is hilarious and legitimately moving, capturing the ridiculous intensity of falling in love at any age. The chemistry between Keaton and Nicholson burns with wit and star-power heat, while her scenes opposite Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) as a younger suitor give Erica real romantic options and agency.
This film marked a career renaissance for Keaton, proving she could carry a major studio romantic comedy as the lead rather than the supportive friend or ailing family member. Something’s Gotta Give celebrates female sexuality (Keaton’s brief full frontal scene is empowering rather than exploitative), creativity, and passionate complexity in ways rarely seen in mainstream cinema, and Keaton seizes every moment with joy, intelligence, and potent star power.
1. Annie Hall (1977)
Woody Allen
Woody Allen’s romantic comedy masterpiece would be unthinkable without Keaton’s Oscar-winning performance as the title character. As Annie Hall, a charmingly insecure aspiring singer navigating an on-again, off-again relationship with neurotic comedian Alvy Singer (Allen), Keaton created one of cinema’s most beloved and enduring characters. Her performance is a revelation of naturalism, the stammering “la-di-da” speech patterns, the nervous giggle, the defensive hand gestures all feel completely spontaneous and real.
Keaton doesn’t just play Annie; she embodies her with such authenticity that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. The film famously influenced fashion with Annie’s menswear-inspired wardrobe, but Keaton’s contribution runs far deeper than style. She makes Annie’s evolution from insecure hanger-on to confident artist completely believable, ensuring the film’s bittersweet ending lands with unmistakable emotional weight. Her comic timing is impeccable, whether singing “Seems Like Old Times” or nervously fumbling with lobsters, yet she never loses Annie’s vulnerability and depth. Annie Hall won Best Picture and transformed romantic comedies forever, but it’s Keaton’s performance that gives the film its lasting ardent resonance. Simply put, this is the defining role of her legendary career.
