The Astron Awards are the San Francisco Greek Film Festival’s audience choice awards, and each year one award is presented to the best feature film and one to the best short film, as selected by audience voting. Honorary Astron Awards are not given yearly, instead they are presented as the film festival organizing team feels the opportunity arises to recognize someone who has made a significant lifelong artistic contribution in the film industry
Iconoclastic actress and prominent Greek American Olympia Dukakis is a multiple award winner for her stage, film & TV work, including an Oscar® for her role as Cher’s mother in Moonstruck. She is a daughter of Greek immigrants, and the first Greek American to win an Oscar®. Her close connection to San Francisco include her many performances in A.C.T. productions, where she has also been on the Board of Trustees. Olympia has appeared in all the Tales of the City television serials, including the new hit Netflix version; she has a close friendship with its creator Armistead Maupin, and often mentions the beloved San Francisco character Anna Madrigal as her favorite role. She also was named a Grand Marshal in the 2011 San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade (as seen in the documentary), celebrating her support of the LGBTQ community.
Her numerous credits, awards and accomplishments include Broadway: Rose (Drama Desk Award Nominee), Social Security, Who’s Who in Hell, The Aspern Papers. London: Rose (Royal National Theatre), Credible Witness (Royal Court). Off-Broadway: The Milktrain Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, The Tempest, Mother Courage and Her Children, Singing Forest, The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), Curse of the Starving Class, Titus Andronicus, A Man’s a Man (Obie Award), Rose Tattoo, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Electra, Hecuba, and Peer Gynt. She is an Academy Award winner for her performance in Moonstruck, a role that also earned her a Golden Globe Award, American Comedy Award, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has appeared in more than 60 feature and short films, including The Infiltrator, 7 Chinese Brothers, Cloudburst, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Steel Magnolias, Dad, Look Who’s Talking I, II & III, Mighty Aphrodite, Jeffrey, Away From Her, among many others. Television: Big Driver, Sex & Violence, Forgive Me, Bored to Death, Last of the Blond Bombshells, Sinatra (Golden Globe Nominee), Joan of Arc (Emmy Nominee), Tales of the City, More Tales of the City (Emmy Nominee), Further Tales of the City, and SWITCH, among more than 40 others. She has performed in over 130 productions Off-Broadway and regionally at theatres including the Public Theater, A.C.T., Shakespeare in the Park, Shakespeare & Co., and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she also served as Associate Director. Founding member and Producing Artistic Director of the Whole Theatre in Montclair, NJ, for 19 years; also a founding member of the Actor’s Company and the Charles Playhouse in Boston. She continues to teach acting at NYU and master classes for professional theatre companies, colleges, and universities across the country. She was bestowed the National Arts Club Medal of Honor and her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was placed in 2013. And at the 2018 Greek Independence Day celebration at Gracie Mansion, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaimed March 20, 2018, as “Olympia Dukakis Day.”