About the Olympia Dukakis Prize
The Olympia Dukakis Prize is a permanent Greek America Foundation initiative honoring Olympia Dukakis by supporting women whose work in film, theater, and the creative arts carries courage, substance, and cultural purpose.
Olympia was more than an Academy Award-winning actor. She was a truth-teller, a teacher, a mentor, and a fiercely proud Greek American woman who used her public platform to elevate stories, challenge assumptions, and stand beside the communities and causes she believed in. From the earliest years of the Greek America Foundation, Olympia was present as a founding board member and devoted supporter, helping shape a vision that connected heritage with service, creativity, and public life.
This prize turns that legacy into a living commitment. The Foundation is building a $250,000 endowed fund that will support the Olympia Dukakis Prize permanently. Once fully endowed, the prize will be awarded annually to a female-led initiative in theater, film, or the creative arts, creating a lasting source of support for work that reflects Olympia’s independence, humanity, and artistic force.
The prize will be awarded each year on June 20, Olympia’s birthday, with a jury selected by the Greek America Foundation’s board of directors to oversee the process. Every gift to the endowment helps move the prize closer to permanence and helps ensure that Olympia’s name continues to open doors for future artists, storytellers, and cultural leaders.
Why a Prize Honoring Olympia Dukakis
From Anthoula Katsimatides, Chairwoman of the Olympia Dukakis Prize Campaign
Olympia believed in artists who were brave enough to tell the truth. She understood that creative work can preserve memory, challenge injustice, give voice to the unseen, and help communities recognize themselves with dignity.
The Olympia Dukakis Prize exists because her legacy deserves more than remembrance. It deserves continuation. By endowing this prize, we are building a permanent way to support women whose creative work carries the same depth, courage, and conviction that defined Olympia’s life.
This prize is not only a tribute to Olympia. It is an investment in future Olympias.
Olympia Dukakis with Anthoula Katsimatides, chairwoman of the Olympia Dukakis Prize Campaign.
Help Endow the Olympia Dukakis Prize
Your gift helps preserve Olympia’s legacy while creating a permanent source of support for women-led creative work.
In Appreciation
We are grateful to the donors who have helped launch this effort, including… Gregory Pappas, Darden Livesay, Stephen-Kleon Skourtis, Joanna Tsanis, Antholis Family Charitable Fund, Michael Conway, Peter Photiou, Barbara Tsairis, Elena Saviolakis, Andrea Holland, Pamela Spyrs, Anthoula Katsimatides, Anthony Adelianakis, Amed Khan, Zoi Maroudas, Lia Bozonelis, Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, Peter Kalis, Lazarus Goanos, Tina Andreadis, Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, Mark & Louise Gatanas, Frances Mitchell, Michael Avgoustidis, and Michael Cassaras.
Olympia and the Greek America Foundation
Olympia’s relationship with the Foundation was personal and lasting. These moments reflect years of friendship, advocacy, and shared purpose.
At the inaugural Gabby Awards in Chicago in 2009
The Foundation sponsored her nomination for her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015
Reconnecting with her cousin Mike Dukakis at the 2011 Gabby Awards at Ellis Island
On stage at Carnegie Hall in 2017 presenting an award at the Gabby Awards
With Melina Kanakaredes at the Hollywood Gabby Awards in 2015
Olympia traveled the country promoting our projects
She donated proceeds of her best-selling autobiography to launch our Project Hope for Greece campaign
A Force of Nature
Olympia Dukakis built one of the most distinctive careers in American theater and film, bringing intelligence, wit, emotional honesty, and unmistakable presence to every role she inhabited. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Moonstruck, earned acclaim on stage and screen for decades, and became known for characters who were sharp, complicated, funny, wounded, wise, and deeply human.
Her work reached far beyond performance. Olympia was a teacher, mentor, activist, and public voice who spoke openly about identity, women’s lives, LGBTQ+ dignity, immigrant experience, social justice, and the responsibility of artists to tell the truth. She carried her Greek heritage with pride, but never as nostalgia alone. For Olympia, culture was something alive: a source of courage, memory, argument, humor, and moral responsibility.
The Olympia Dukakis Prize honors that full legacy: the artist, the advocate, the mentor, and the woman who insisted that creative work could be both beautiful and brave.
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