Barbra Streisand has paid tribute to her friend and former co-star Robert Redford at the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

The actor and singer, 83, sang a portion of the title song from their 1973 romantic drama The Way We Were, directed by Sydney Pollack, after remembering the pair’s respect and affection for one another.

The film, she said, was “also about a dark time in our history. The late 40s and early 50s, when people were informing on each other and subject to loyalty oaths.”

She paid tribute to Redford’s political courage, saying “he spoke up to defend the freedom of the press, protect the environment and encourage new voices” at the Sundance institute.

“I called him an intellectual cowboy,” she said, “who blazed his own trail.”

She concluded by saying that she had told Redford she loved him in her last note to him, before singing.

Streisand’s most recent appearance on the Oscars stage was 13 years ago, when she performed the same song to honour its late composer, Marvin Hamlisch, as part of the ceremony’s In Memoriam segment.

Redford won an Oscar for his directorial debut, Ordinary People (1980), as well as receiving an honorary Academy Award, which was presented to him by Streisand in 2002.

The film-maker, who also founded the Sundance festival, died in September 2025, aged 89. Streisand paid tribute to him then on Instagram, writing: “Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy. We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yes, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie.

“Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting – and one of the finest actors ever.”

Redford’s other key credits include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men.