Diane Keaton to Get AFI Life Achievement Award
Diane Keaton (AP Images/Invision)
by Gregg Kilday, The Hollywood Reporter
“La-dee-da,” as her signature character Annie Hall might say: Diane Keaton will be the 45th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, the American Film Institute board of trustees announced Thursday.
The award will be presented to the Oscar-winning actress at a Gala Tribute on June 8 in Los Angeles and will be subsequently broadcast by Turner Broadcasting on TNT, followed by encore presentations on sister network Turner Classic Movies.
Keaton, 70, has been nominated for four best actress Academy Awards, winning the Oscar for 1977’s Annie Hall, one of a series of movies she starred in for Woody Allen that Include Sleeper, Love and Death and Manhattan. She starred opposite Al Pacino as Kay Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather movies. And her film credits also include dramatic performances in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Reds, The Little Drummer Girl and Marvin’s Room as well as comic turns in Father of the Bride, The First Wives Club and Something’s Gotta Give. She recently voiced Dory’s mom in the animated Finding Dory and will next be seen in the HBO series The Young Pope.
Known for her idiosyncratic sense of style as well as her forays into photography, art books and architectural preservation, she also has directed such features as Unstrung Heroes and Hanging Up.
“Diane Keaton is one of the most beloved leading ladies of American film,” Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees, said in announcing the honor. “Peerless in her mastery of both comedy and drama, she has won the world’s heart time and again by creating characters of both great strength and vulnerability. Her career as a director and producer is even further evidence of her passion for the art form and her seemingly boundless talents.”
Keaton is the ninth woman to receive the award, which recognizes “one whose talent has in a fundamental way advanced the film art; whose accomplishment has been acknowledged by scholars, critics, professional peers and the general public; and whose work has stood the test of time.”
A complete list of the previous recipients follows:
1973 John Ford
1974 James Cagney
1975 Orson Welles
1976 William Wyler
1977 Bette Davis
1978 Henry Fonda
1979 Alfred Hitchcock
1980 James Stewart
1981 Fred Astaire
1982 Frank Capra
1983 John Huston
1984 Lillian Gish
1985 Gene Kelly
1986 Billy Wilder
1987 Barbara Stanwyck
1988 Jack Lemmon
1989 Gregory Peck
1990 David Lean
1991 Kirk Douglas
1992 Sidney Poitier
1993 Elizabeth Taylor
1994 Jack Nicholson
1995 Steven Spielberg
1996 Clint Eastwood
1997 Martin Scorsese
1998 Robert Wise
1999 Dustin Hoffman
2000 Harrison Ford
2001 Barbra Streisand
2002 Tom Hanks
2003 Robert De Niro
2004 Meryl Streep
2005 George Lucas
2006 Sean Connery
2007 Al Pacino
2008 Warren Beatty
2009 Michael Douglas
2010 Mike Nichols
2011 Morgan Freeman
2012 Shirley MacLaine
2013 Mel Brooks
2014 Jane Fonda
2015 Steve Martin
2016 John Williams
