For 1976’s A Star is Born, her first film as executive producer, Streisand also starred and wrote some of the film’s songs, becoming the first female composer ever to win an Academy Award, for the song “Evergreen.”

With the 1983 film Yentl, the story of a Jewish woman who poses as a boy in order to study the Talmud, Streisand again broke new ground in motion picture history by becoming the first woman to co-write, produce, direct, and star in a motion picture. The film received mixed reviews. After turning in another emotionally wrenching performance in the 1987 film Nuts, Streisand directed her second feature, The Prince of Tides (1991), based on the best-selling novel by Pat Conroy and co-starring Nick Nolte. The film received rave reviews, and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The Academy’s striking omission of Streisand in the Best Director category drew criticism from many corners of the entertainment community. She shook off the snub, and in 1996 returned with another, less successful directorial effort, The Mirror Has Two Faces, in which she starred with Jeff Bridges and Lauren Bacall. Through her filmmaking career, Streisand has been criticized for her highhanded style and her perfectionism; she responded with the observation that such traits would be considered assets when applied to a male director.

Notoriously shy about performing live, Streisand took a more than 20-year hiatus from performing live, reportedly quitting after receiving a death threat before a 1967 concert. In 1994, she returned with two highly successful New Year’s shows at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel, for which she reportedly received $12 million. Later that year, she went on her first-ever major multi-city concert tour, including several shows in New York’s Madison Square Garden, which were recorded and later released as The Concert (1994). Her successful touring career continued throughout the 1990s, including a gala Las Vegas Millennium concert event on New Year’s Eve 1999. In January 2000, Streisand received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

A committed Democrat, she founded the Barbra Streisand Foundation in 1987 to support liberal political causes. She has also gone public with her support for gay and women's rights and environmentalism.

In September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring from performing. She said goodbye to her fans with two sold-out, star-studded shows at New York's Madison Square Garden, with tickets selling for up to $2,500.

Streisand was married to Elliott Gould (her co-star in Broadway’s I Can Get it For You Wholesale) from 1963 to 1971. They have one son, Jason Gould, who appeared in The Prince of Tides as the awkward teenage son of Streisand’s character.