TEASER
"Olympia delivers an uncommonly personal, cinema verity-style portrait of its fascinating, iconoclastic subject."
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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ABOUT THE FILM
Academy Award-winning actress and theater icon Olympia Dukakis is well known and beloved to viewers across America for her performances on stage and in classic films like Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias. But what did it take for her to achieve this success?
In crafting his revealing bio-documentary Olympia, Greek American filmmaker Harry Mavromichalis had unprecedented access to Olympia, her family, and the story of her life. From rebelling against her overbearing Greek mother to starting her own theatre company, Mavromichalis reveals both the public and private aspects of a woman who faced obstacle after obstacle as she learned how to be comfortable in her own skin and live life with blazing courage.
Featuring interviews with Laura Linney, Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Ladd, Lainie Kazan and Armistead Maupin, Olympia seamlessly blends past and present culminating on the steps of the Dukakis' humble ancestral home in Lesbos, Greece where we see Olympia's life come full circle.
OLYMPIA DUKAKIS
Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 - May 1, 2021) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Greek immigrants. She earned two degrees from Boston University, one in Physical Therapy and one in Acting.
Olympia won an Academy Award 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 appeared in more than 60 feature and short films, including Steel Magnolias, Cloudburst, Dad, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Working Girl, 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 among more than 40 others.
She performed in over 130 productions on and 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. She was a 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 taught acting at NYU and gave 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.
"I love this chaotic, contradictory, loving mess that has been my life."
OLYMPIA DUKAKIS
FILMOGRAPHY
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THE CAST
Whoopi Goldberg
Laura Linney
Diane Ladd
Lainie Kazan
Ed Asner
Austin Pendleton
Lynn Cohen
Armistead Maupin
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Norman Jewison
Alan Poul
Louis Zorich
Rocco Sisto
Michael Dukakis
THE FILMMAKERS
Harry Mavromichalis
Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
Harry’s directing and producing credits include “Olympia”; the award-winning, critically-acclaimed feature documentary on Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis and “Yankee Restraint”; a character driven piece that examines the intricacies of a gay relationship spanning decades and tackles issues of love and resentment. Harry has dual citizenship from the United States and Cyprus. After working professionally as a modern dancer and choreographer he went back to school and received his Masters in Film Directing from New York University. He is a writer, director, producer with multiple short films, music videos and commercials under his belt. Harry curated the first LGBTQ Film Festival and was one of the key organizers of the 1st Pride Parade in Cyprus.
Muriel Moraes
Producer
A native Brazilian, Muriel has established her career in New York City working with a wide array of projects that range from indie documentaries to studio animated feature films. With Udon Productions, led by the award-winning Spanish director Toni Comas, she produced campaigns for companies such as SodaStream and Mr. Steam as well as Mr Comas latest feature film “American Falls”, currently in post-production. Her producing credit for documentary includes the feature "The Case of Josephine H." by the renowned Polish artist Izabella Gustowska which was released in the 2014 New Horizons International Film Festival and the short “Suit Yourself” showcased at 2012 My Hero Film Festival. In the post-production realm, she worked with Company 3 in films such as “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (2013) and 20th Century Fox in the films “Epic” (2013), “Rio 2” (2014) and “Ferdinand” (2017). Currently, she is a producer at Boipeba Filmes, led by the Academy Award-nominated director Carlos Saldanha.
Keren Seol
Producer
Keren Seol is a film producer based in New York City. Born in South Korea, she has worked as a director, producer, and editor for broadcast networks 'KBS', 'SBS', and 'M-net' since 2005. Since graduating from the New York Film Academy in 2011, she collaborated with numerous filmmakers in New York City for short films, web-series, documentary, and feature films. Her first feature film 'The Motion of The Sun' has been screened at the Long Island Film Festival and Miami Independent Film Festival. In 2017, she worked in the production of 'Okja' and 'Sense 8'. Currently, she has two feature films in the development stage with White Night Films.
Andrew Ford
Producer, Editor
Andrew Ford’s recent feature length producing and editing credits include 'The Seventh Fire' (Berlin International Film Festival), 'Down the Shore’ (Anchor Bay, Starz, starring James Gandolfini and Famke Janssen), 'Killing Kasztner' (Toronto International Film Festival), 'A Walk to Beautiful' (Emmy winner, IDA best documentary feature winner, 5 audience awards), released theatrically and broadcast on Nova, and 'Until the Light Takes Us' (Golden Athena award winner for Best Documentary), focusing on Norwegian black metal music and enjoyed a worldwide theatrical release. Ford’s television credits include the Emmy-nominated 'Frontier House' series for PBS, and the ground-breaking documentary series,'Family Bonds', for HBO.
Sid Ganis
Executive Producer
Sid Ganis co-founded OUT OF THE BLUE ENTERTAINMENT with partner (and wife) Nancy Hult Ganis, in 1996 following a distinguished career as an executive at major studios including Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Columbia Pictures. He began his career in film in the publicity department of 20th Century Fox in New York. In 2005, Sid was elected to his first term as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, a position which he held for four consecutive terms. He currently serves as Vice President on the Academy’s Board of Governors and as chair of the Academy’s Museum Committee.
As a producer, Mr. Ganis found box office success with Big Daddy, Deuce Bigalow, Mr. Deeds, and the critically acclaimed Akeelah and the Bee, which he co-produced with his wife Nancy Hult Ganis. Currently, Ganis is a consultant with leading U.S. entertainment technology company Dolby Laboratories. He has also served 10 years on the Board of Directors of Marvel Entertainment until its sale to Disney in 2009, as well as the boards of FIND (Film Independent) and University of California, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive and San Francisco’s SF FILM.
Anthoula Katsimatides
Executive Producer
Anthoula Katsimatides is an actor, writer, producer, and voice-over artist. A member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA, a true artist at heart, her love for performing on-screen is matched by her passion for theatre work. Her first experience as a theatre producer was for Opa! The Musical, an off-Broadway musical that had several runs and enjoyed sweet success. She later developed and produced autobiographical solo shows, “What Will People Think?” & “Warrior Without A Cause” that have garnered many accolades and won awards off-Broadway. Anthoula is thrilled to be an executive producer of “Olympia”, a film about her inspiring mentor. She is a proud board member of The National September 11th Memorial and Museum, and founded the Johnny and Mikey Katsimatides Foundation for Life in memory of her two brothers. Honored in 2012 as one of Greek America’s 40 Under 40.
John Ryan Johnson
Director of Photography
John Ryan Johnson is an Award-winning commercial director and filmmaker.
A finalist for New Director of the Year at the 2016 shots Awards in London and winner of Best Test Commercial in North America at the 2015 Young Director Award in Cannes, Ryan's commercial direction has also received international acclaim from Porsche, Ciclope, and W3. Commercial clients have included McDonald’s, Bombas, Skagen, American Express, and Storyhunter. As Director of Photography, Ryan has shot three feature documentaries as well as numerous commercials and branded content. Ryan is based in New York City.
Federico Cesca
Director of Photography
Cinematographer Federico Cesca was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has a degree in music and architecture and holds an MFA in filmmaking from NYU Tisch. In 2014 he was awarded the ARRI-CSC Bahnemann Award for his outstanding student cinematography. His work has screened at numerous film festivals including Venice, Cannes, Sundance, and Berlin. He had the privilege to work with Miss Dukakis again on the latest installment of Tales of the City in 2019 for Netflix where he was the Director of Photography for the entire series.
Sam Eggers
Editor, Writer
Sam has been working in Brooklyn for the last 10 years as an editor, assistant editor, and writer on many documentary feature films and television shows. Most recently alongside Olympia, Sam edited Parkland Rising an award-winning documentary feature film about the Stoneman Douglas shootings which has been touring the festival circuit around the country. Previously Sam spent many years managing and co-producing feature/short films, and trailers for Stunning Cuts Films a Brooklyn based production company.
Paul Cantelon
Composer
Paul Cantelon is an American composer of film scores and contemporary classical music. In the early ’90s, Paul formed the eclectic band, Wild Colonials, with the singer, Angela McCluskey, recording two albums for Geffen Records and performing with such artists as Joe Cocker, The Kinks, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, George Clinton, Rickie Lee Jones, King Crimson and Ry Cooder. Paul composed music for Liev Schreiber’s Everything Is Illuminated. He went on to score such films as the award-winning Diving Bell And The Butterfly (2007), Sony Pictures’ The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Oliver Stone’s W (2008), New York, I Love You (2009), Tony Goldwyn’s Conviction (2010), Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel (2011), Woody Allen: A Documentary (2012), and most recently Jane Fonda in Five Acts (2018).
Alexia Vassiliou
Additional Music
Alexia Vassiliou is an award-winning multi-gold and platinum multi-genre conceptual international artist, songwriter, composer, and social activist. With a career spanning thirty years, and 45 recorded album in the United States, Europe and Greece, Alexia changed Greek record sales history with her series of gold and platinum albums for CBS-Columbia, Air Music, Polygram, Universal Music, BMG, and Sony Music International in the genres of Pop, Jazz, Improvisation/ Experimental, World and Film Music.
Angie Dix
Associate Producer
Angie Dix is an Emmy Award-winning American editor and producer working in the film and television world for more than 10 years. She received three Emmy nominations for her editing work on the non-fiction series The Mind of a Chef (PBS, Netflix). The series was narrated by Anthony Bourdain, someone she continued to collaborate with on multiple projects over several years including his award-winning series' Parts Unknown(CNN) and No Reservations (Travel).
She was an Editor on the pay-it-forward series Returning The Favor (Facebook) with Mike Rowe. Previously she worked with outdoorsman and conservationist Steven Rinella on MeatEater (Sportsman, Netflix) and The Wild Within (Travel), and with Phil Rosenthal on I'll Have What Phil's Having (PBS).
Kelly Miller
Associate Producer
Kelly is an actor, writer, and producer whose latest award-winning short film, Touchscreen, is an official selection of the Cleveland International Film Festival, Florida Film Festival and Woods Hole Film Festival, among others. He is an associate producer on the documentary feature Yankee Restraint, currently in production. His on-screen work includes appearances in Steven Spielberg's The Post, Tamara Jenkins' Private Life and TV shows including Homeland, House of Cards, Godfather of Harlem and The Plot Against America.
Pamela Spyrs
Associate Producer
Pamela Spyrs is a publicist, producer and activist based in Southern California who has accumulated a vast network of artists, filmmakers, designers, environmental game changers, and humanitarian leaders. Pamela has worked with innumerable clients bringing them to the next level and has established a respected reputation in doing so. She has been successful placing clients in the media such as, THE TALK (CBS), Home & Family (Hallmark Channel), KTLA 5 Morning News, Good Day LA, Daily Variety, Los Angeles Times, OC Register, LA Weekly, LA Magazine, amongst others. Pamela is also an Associate Producer for "Olympia", a feature documentary about the poetic life of Academy Award winning actress, Olympia Dukakis. As Founder of INSPYRS PR she has a zest for attention to detail and encouraging others to "CREATE ~ SUSTAIN ~ INSPYRE".
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