Top 10 Palm Dog Winners

With the 77th Cannes Film Festival opening on 14 May, Cinema Paradiso wonders whose tail will be wagging 10 days later when the winner of is announced of the 23rd Palm Dog.

It's a busy time for movie dog lovers. A Collie named Bandit takes the title role in Hanno Olderdissen's 'Lassie: A New Adventure', a dognapping tale aimed at younger viewers that is in cinemas alongside David Leitch's The Fall Guy. This sees stuntman Ryan Gosling try to track down missing actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson with the help of Jean-Claude, a dog who only speaks French. He's played by two female Kelpies and is based on a Belgian Malinois who once belonged to Gosling's wife, Eva Mendes, and was strictly Francophonic.

Judging by the expression on the face of the terrier in the train corridor in Alice Rohrwacher's La chimera, he doesn't have a common tongue with Josh O'Connor's Etruscan grave robber. But the look of cocked-headed pity that the little pooch shoots the English exile clearly caught the eye of the judges at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, as the scene was named Mutt Moment at the annual Palm Dog Awards. But when did this cinematic equivalent of Crufts come into being and who has been named top dog in the years since its inauguration in 2001?

Coming Up Roses

The Palm Dog was first presented at the 54th Cannes Film Festival. But its origin story begins at a carpenter's stall in Champagne, where Paris-based film journalist Toby Rose became acquainted with a Fox Terrier puppy, whom he named Mutley (presumably) after the snickering canine from Wacky Races (1968-69) and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (1969).

Ensconced in a Parisian apartment, Mutt refused to be starstruck by the likes of Charlotte Rampling, Drew Barrymore, Steven Spielberg, and Renée Zellweger. Indeed, he became a doggy model and appeared in advertisements and photo shoots for Harper's Bazaar. Rose even created his own fanzine, Mutt Mag, which prompted him to head to the Riviera to launch the Palm Dog in 2001.

Mutt was in attendance as the gold-lettered leather collar was presented to Jennifer Jason Leigh in recognition of the efforts of her canine co-star, Otis, in Leigh and Alan Cumming's comedy, The Anniversary Party (2001). The following year, a Japanese producer approached Rose with a proposal to star Mutley in a comedy about the life of a pampered pet in London and Paris. The fabled comedy duo of Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais were linked with the project - think Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads (1973-74), Porridge (1974-77), and Auf Wiedersehn, Pet (1983-2004). When Variety picked up on Mutley's feature bow in 2002, it had acquired the title, The Dog That Ate Paris, and a villainous co-star in Jean-Christophe Bouvet.

Rose took a 20-minute showreel to the festival in order to rustle up interest in a story that would see Mutt strive to clear his name after being accused of a high-society robbery. The journalist enthused about how the terrier had been papped around town with the likes of Hugh Grant, Dido, Calista Flockhart, Martine McCutheon, Shannon Elizabeth, Stella Tennant, Erin O'Connor, Thora Birch, Dennis Hopper, Milla Jovovich, Guy Pierce, Christian Slater, and Ivanka Trump. But the picture doesn't appear to have been completed.

Sadly, Mutley died in 2007. But Rose has continued to present the Palm Dog each spring. Moreover, he persuaded the London Film Festival to host the inaugural FIDOS, which followed on from The Barkers, a short-lived award that was launched at the Rex Cinema in Soho in 2006, with an accompanying 'dogumentary' entitled, Sniffing the Red. An acronym of 'For Incredible Dogs On Screen', the FIDOS have become known as the Canine Oscars. Six categories are currently presented each autumn, with Historical Hound, Comedy Canine, Rom Com Rover, and Blockbuster Bowser being joined by the Mutt Moment and the Best in World categories.

Anna, Alice, Megan, Oliver, and Poppy, the Suffolk-trained corgis who trotted around Helen Mirren's feet during her Oscar-winning turn in Stephen Frears's The Queen, took the Historical Hounds award at the first ceremony. The star seemed suitably pleased, as she confided, 'I know one should avoid acting with animals and children, but these little chaps were a pleasure to work with and deserve all the plaudits for their fine performances.'

Also honoured during the course of the evening were the unnamed hunting dog in Antoine Fuqua's Shooter (Best Action Movie), Travis the mixed corgi in Mike White's Year of the Dog (Comedy Canine), and Petra, a dog of uncertain breed, in Asif Kapadia's Far North (Best At London Film Festival). Information about the FIDOS online is somewhat sketchy, with lists of nominees and winners hard to come by. Perhaps we can revisit them when the evenings start to draw in.

2001-2005

There was little media fanfare when the first Palm Dog was presented in 2001. Honourable mention was made of Leo, who played the pill-popping, hard-partying Delgado in Justin Edgar's debut feature, Large. But the inaugural award went to Otis, a Shephard/Bisenji mix (according to Humane Hollywood) whose incessant barking and random decision to wander out of the front gate of a luxury home and explore Hollywood leads to a blazing row between screenwriter Joe Therrian (Alan Cumming) and actress wife Sally Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in The Anniversary Party, which was written, produced, and directed by the co-stars. Although Otis (who is billed as a Jack Russell in some sources) didn't make it to Cannes, Leigh collected the prized collar in person. However, it was Cumming who reunited with him when Otis starred in Lawrence Guterman's Son of The Mask (2005).

The runners-up spot in 2002 went to the Jack Russell playing Sonny in David Blair's Mystics, which centres on veteran con men Dave (David Kelly) and Locky (Milo O'Shea) and their dubious ability to speak to the dead. However, the top prize went to Tähti, who shone as Hannibal, the melancholic pooch who takes pity on amnesiac Markku Peltola after he receives a hefty beating on arriving in Helsinki in Finnish maestro Aki Kaurismäki's The Man Without a Past (both 2002).

According to the jury, 'Tähti really jumped off the screen. Tähti is what four-legged film stardom is all about. Wowser!' This should not have come as a surprise to Kaurismäki aficionados, however, as Tähti came from an acting family. Her great grandmother, Laika, featured in La Vie de Bohème (1992), while grandmother Pittu graced Juha (1999). Subsequently, Paju appeared in Lights in the Dusk (2006) and a different Laika cropped up in Le Havre (2011). One would think that Kaurismäki would be a shoo-in for the Dogmanitarian Award, as he opened the dog-friendly cinema, Cine-Laika, in Helsinki, which was named after the famous Soviet space hound.

Bruno, the yellow mutt who sleeps when not barking at trains in Sylvain Chomet's Belleville Rendez-vous made Palm Dog history, when he became the first cartoon canine to be mentioned in the jury's dispatches in 2003. The winner, however, was even less animated, as Moses was little more than a chalk outline in Lars von Trier's minimalist experiment, Dogville. A barking noise could be heard when Grace Mulligan (Nicole Kidman) first arrives in town and she clearly takes a liking to the doodle, as Cinema Paradiso users will discover when they rent the film.

Much to the delight of the jury, an acrobatic dog steals focus from the geese, donkeys, and bears wrangled in Emir Kusturica's cacophonic Romeo and Juliet saga, Life Is a Miracle. But the canine ensemble in Jonathan Nossiter's documentary, Mondovino, took the 2004 prize. A treatise on the struggle facing artisanal French wine-makers in the face of corporate competition, the film uses the various dogs on display to highlight the individuality of each terroir. Critics particularly noted Edgar and Hoover, however, as the flatulent Bulldogs belonging to wine expert Robert Parker raised the wind, as well as a smile. On receiving his collar, Nossiter enthused, 'No greater award for man or dog has ever been known.'

Back in 1961, a Skye Terrier named Tam took the title role in Don Chaffey's Disney retelling of the true story of Greyfriars Bobby. Overlooking the furore caused by the casting of a West Highland Terrier in John Henderson's 2005 remake, the Palm Dog jury gave Westie a ruffle behind the ears for his performance in The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby. He was pipped to the main award, however, by Bruno, who essayed Zochor (aka Spot), the white dog with a black face who latches on to Nansal Batchuluun, the daughter of a nomadic Mongolian shepherd, in Byanbasure Davaa's Cave of the Yellow Dog. He wants to drive the friendly mongrel away, as he fears he will lead wolves to the flock. But Nansal is adamant that he can help the family, especially after she hears the legend of a yellow dog who once cured a child.

2006-2011

Unfortunately, we can't bring you Matthias Luthardt's Pingpong, which is perhaps just as well because Schumann the Riesenschnauzer meets a watery end. Things don't exactly turn out well, either, for the owner of Mops the Pug in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (both 2006). However, the pet who is snatched away from the Austrian archduchess (Kirsten Dunst) because she is not allowed to possess anything unFrench after marrying the Dauphin (Jason Schwartzman) gets a royal reprieve and joins the canine cast at Versailles. Here, he delights in behaving badly at every opportunity, most notably at the card table and even while sporting his own powdered wig. Cinema Paradiso members should be warned, however. There are historians out there who doubt that Mops ever existed!

For the first time in Palm Dog history, there was no unanimous winner in 2007. The cast of strays playing Bangkok street dogs Makham, Luang Kaffee, Sexy, Keng, Piak, and Pikul in Pantham Thongsang's Thai comedy, Ma-Mha (aka Mid Road Gang, which spawned a 2012 sequel) clearly left an impression. But so did Yuki, the expressive terrier in Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis (both 2007), an animated adaptation of the former's autobiographical graphic novel about how a young girl named Marji (Chiara Mastroianni) acclimatises to the drastic changes in everyday life in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Another first occurred in 2008, when Molly, the large white hound with brown spots adopted by retired train driver, Odd Horten (Bård Owe), won the first Special Jury Prize for her performance in Bent Hamer's O' Horten. The unanimous winner of the Palm Dog, however, was Lucy, the Golden Retriever pet who director Kelly Reichardt had already featured in Old Joy (2006). In Wendy and Lucy, she's the travelling companion of Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams), who is distraught when her faithful four-legged friend is impounded after she is arrested for shoplifting a tin of dog food after her car breaks down in Oregon while driving to Alaska in the hope of finding a job.

By now, the Palm Dog was sufficiently established to attract plentiful media attention. However, there's a little confusion about which three films were singled out in 2009 by jurors Kaleem Aftab, Peter Bradshaw, James Christopher, and Charles Gant. No one disputes the winner as being Dug (Bob Peterson), the Golden Retriever with a translating device in his collar, who befriends age-gap travelling buddies Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) and Russell (Jordan Nagai) in Pete Docter's Pixar masterpiece, Up.

But, while Wikipedia and other sources state that consideration was also given to the black Poodle owned by Francesca Mondino (Julie Dreyfus) in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and (through a little rule bending), the fox in Lars von Trier's Antichrist, the Full List of Winners section on the Palm Dog website begs to differ. It states that the special mention was made to Syrus, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier who played Tennents, the pet who provides some solace to 15 year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) in Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, while the Jury Prize went to Rex in Yorgos Lanthimos's Canine. This is presumably Dogtooth, which includes a scene in which the father is prevented from removing his still fiercely tenacious dog from a strict training scheme. The fact this mistitling has not been amended suggests something is awry. But who knows?

Moving swiftly on, we can say without fear of contraction that a Border Collie named Vuk took the Jury Prize for his splendid display of mischief in Michelangelo Frammartino's neo-realist gem, La quattro volte. Having been chased away by the men playing Roman centurions in the Easter procession in a rural Calabrian village, Vuk runs off to remove the rock preventing a red truck from rolling backwards. Much to his yapping delight, the vehicle slowly reverses into a wooden pen, which is smashed to smithereens allowing a herd of goats to escape. Filmed in a single overhead take, this meticulously choreographed gag would have had Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati, and Otar Iosseliani chortling admiringly.

For some reason, the voting panel decided to give the Palm Dog to a Boxer named Albert Clark. He plays Boss, the cause of a bovine stampede at the end of Stephen Frears's adaptation of Posy Simmonds's Tamara Drewe. But you have to ask how all concerned managed to overlook the Alsatian lovingly animated in Paul and Sandra Fierlinger's poignant take on J.R. Ackerley's My Dog Tulip (both 2010). With Christopher Plummer voicing the author, this merited a nomination at the very least.

There could only be one winner in 2011, of course. The aforementioned Laika thoroughly deserved the Jury Prize for her work as the companion of shoeshiner Marcel Marx (Pierre Willms) in Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre. But no one could touch Uggie, the Parson Russell Terrier who helped Jean Dujardin win every award going for Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist. Although he had doubles Dash and Dude on hand, Uggie did the majority of his own stunts in a scene-stealing display as Jack, which prompted a campaign to have him made eligible for the Oscars. Instead, he had to settle for being fussed on innumerable red carpets and for sharing a Hollywood Reporter photo shoot with Cosmo, another Jack Russell who had made a splash alongside the Oscar-winning Christopher Plummer in Mike Mills's Beginners.

2012-2017

Cinema Paradiso is currently unable to bring you Billy Bob, the Jack Russell whose performance as a punk dog in Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern's Le Grand soir earned him the Jury Prize in 2012. But users can get clicking to see Smurf in action as top dog Banjo in Ben Wheatley's murderously bleak comedy, Sightseers. Fellow terrier Ged might consider himself unlucky to have missed out on a dual citation as Poppy. But Smurf is the busier boy, as camping fan Chris (Steve Oram) and girlfriend Tina (Alice Lowe) go on a killing spree that gives new meaning to the word 'deadpan'.

Despite the plan to steal Paris Hilton's purse dog being thwarted in Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, 'the pooch posse' still took the Special Jury Prize in 2013 for the Reservoir Dogs pastiche shot. However, the coveted collar was always destined for Vincent, the one year-old Poodle who played the near-blind Baby Boy in Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh's account of the five-year relationship between flamboyant pianist,

Liberace (Michael Douglas), and animal trainer Scott Thorson (Matt Damon).

Three films came under the spotlight in 2014, with the special mention going to Moujik, the Bulldog who wolfs down a cocktail of spilled pills in Bertrand Bonello's biopic, Saint Laurent. More quaintly, Jean-Luc Godard indulgently photographed his own Lurcher cross, Roxy Miéville, rolling in the snow and nouvelle wagging its tail in Goodbye to Language, as the narrator intones, 'A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves himself.' But the Palm Dog was bestowed upon the entire canine cast of Hungarian Kornél Mundruczó's White God. While the Budapest street pack and fighting dogs are shockingly authentic, it's three year-old Labrador/Shar-Pei siblings Bodie and Luke who steal the show as Hagen, the mongrel who is separated from 13 year-old Lili (Zsófia Psotta) by her penny-pinching father.

The 68th Cannes Film Festival saw a new prize added to the Palm Dog roster. Belgian director Laurent Larivière became the first winner of the Palm DogManitarian Award for Je suis un soldat, which stars Louise Bourgoin as a woman who is lured into an Eastern European dog trafficking racket. While this is out of our reach for now, Cinema Paradiso can bring you the quirky sibling double act of David (Colin Farrell) and Bob (a sheepdog named Ryac) in Yorgos Lanthimos's The Lobster, which took the 2015 Jury Prize. But the big bow-wow was taken by Lucky, the Maltese Poodle who essayed Dixie in Miguel Gomes's Arabian Nights, Volume 2: The Desolate One, although the Hollywood Reporter felt this was 'ruff' on the Labrador in Jia Zhang-ke's Mountains May Depart and the Rotweiler unleashed on the trapped punk rockers in Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room.

The first posthumous award was presented in 2016. Ken Loach had been handed the DogManitarian prize for featuring three-legged dogs in several of his films, including Shae the Alsatian in I, Daniel Blake. The Jury Prize went to Jacques the Dalmatian, who gets to have his day in court (along with a monkey) in assisting lawyer Virginie Efira regain a modicum of control over her life in Justine Triet's In Bed With Victoria. But the deserved winner was Nellie, the rescue dog who excelled as Marvin, the Bulldog belonging to Golshifteh Farahani, who shreds the notebook containing the only copies of the poems written by bus driver Adam Driver in Jim Jarmusch's utterly disarming dramedy, Paterson.

Leslie Caron collected the DogManitarian Award in 2017 in recognition of her partnership with 17 year-old rescue dog, Tchi Tchi, while a special commendation was presented to sniffer dogs Lilou, Glock, and Even. Robert Pattinson got a special mention for a scene in Josh and Benny Safdie's Good Time, in which he confides in a canine companion that he had been a dog in a previous life. This sequence took on a controversial life of its own after a chat show appearance, but there's nothing shocking to reveal about Lupo, the black Alsatian who got to ride on a motorbike (albeit against a green screen) with Noée Abita and Juan Cano in Léa Mysius's holiday romance drama, Ava. Sadly, however, the winner eludes us on this occasion, as Bruno the Standard White Poodle who (as Einstein) combines so perfectly with Dustin Hoffman in Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories is a Netflix exclusive.

2018-2024

With the 2018 DogManitarian Award being snaffled up by Vanessa Davies and the Pug who inspired her to script the Mandie Fletcher comedy, Patrick, the Jury Prize went to the fluffy Pekingese puppies who frolicked around on a pink cloud so that a Portuguese footballer (Carloto Cotta) could clear his mind and focus on the game in Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt's sporting satire, Diamantino. The resounding winner, however, was the ensemble in Matteo Garrone's Dogman, in which Best Actor winner Marcello Fonte is outstanding as the canaro-cum-cocaine dealer who would much rather be grooming dogs than dealing with thugs. Jake the Great Dane took it easy in the scene in which Fonte gives him a manicure, but the showstopper involved Joy, the Chihuahua who had to be rescued and thawed after being stuffed into a freezer during a house robbery.

It all seemed to be happening at the 2019 edition of the Palm Dog. Google was rather surprisingly given the DogManitarian Award for supporting dogs in the workplace, while the first Underdog Award was presented to The Unadoptable, a film funded by the RSPCA Huawei promoting the adoption of strays like a photogenic Lurcher named Penny. Then, there was a tie for the newly renamed Grand Jury Prize. In addition to recognising the ensemble in Frederik Du Chau's Aasha and the Street Dogs (which was the first live-action canine caper to be filmed in India), the sitting critics were also taken by Bello, the dog belonging to plant breeder Bella (Kerry Fox) in Jessica Hausner's sci-fi chiller, Little Joe.

But the ceremony was turned on its head when Quentin Tarantino arrived to collect the Palm Dog that had been earned by Sayuri, the Pit Bull owned by Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood. 'When I was editing the movie,' Tarantino revealed, 'I realised, she's a great actress. I actually started seeing things in her face when I was cutting it together that I didn't see on the day, so whatever little difficulties we had on set just really melted away when I saw what a great performance she gave.' Accepting the collar on his star's behalf, Tarantino said, 'I want to thank the jury from the bottom of my black heart. At least I don't go home empty-handed.'

Nobody came to Cannes in 2020, as Covid-19 put the planet into lockdown. However, the circus came to town again for a 20th anniversary celebration that saw Mastercard receive the DogManitarian Award for its use of dogs in advertising during the pandemic. More significantly, there was another two-way tussle for the Grand Jury Prize between Sophie the Pit Bull in Sean Baker's Red Rocket and Panda the Sheepdog in Valdimar Jóhannsson's Lamb. Each performance was splendid, but these faithful hounds were rather swept aside by Tilda Swinton's Springer Spaniel trio of Rose, Dora, and Snowbear, who brought their bounding joie de vivre to Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir, Part II.

A nice touch got proceedings off to a fine start in 2022, when the DogManitarian Award was given to Patron, a Ukrainian Jack Russell who had earned the gratitude of President Volodymyr Zelensky for its courage in sniffing out Russian mines. On a lighter note, Titane from Baz Luhrmann's Elvis was the sole contender for the Palm Hound Dog prize. The now customary sharing of the Grand Jury Prize meant that the eponymous terrier who co-starred with Alba Rohrwacher and Maayane Conti in Jasmine Trinca's Marcel! couldn't be separated from the various curs who played the loyal sheepdog owned by Ingvar Sigurðsson in Hlynur Pálmason's Godland. However, most agreed that Britney, the Silver Poodle who played Beast trudging across the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota behind Jojo Bapteise Whiting in Riley Keough and Gina Gammell's War Pony, was the perfect choice for the Palm Dog.

Last year saw the Palm Dog line-up get a good makeover. Isabella Rossellini landed the DogManitarian Award, while the retiring Ken Loach was accorded a Lifetime Achievement Award after casting Lola as pub landlord Dave Turner's adored mongrel, Marra, in The Old Oak. Surely Aki Kaurismäki must be in line for this gong after Alma, the dog who played Chaplin in Fallen Leaves, took the Grand Jury Prize.

The first winner of the Highly Commended Canine prize was Susie, the grey Staffordshire Bull Terrier who strives to protect Karim Leklou in a lawless Lyon in Stéphan Castang's Vincent Must Die. Similarly, the cameoing white terrier who gazes pityingly on Josh O'Connor in the train corridor in Alice Rohrwacher's La chimera merited the inaugural Mutt Moment. When it came to the Palm Dog, however, no one, however, was going to deny Messi, the Border Collie who played Snoop in Justine Triet's Oscar-winning drama, Anatomy of a Fall, and stole the show in delivering a vital clue to the murder mystery at its heart.

Having given Ryan Gosling a run for his money as the star turn at the Oscars in March, Messi is set to take Cannes by storm a second time, as he conducts eight red carpet interviews with the likes of Meryl Streep and Jean Dujardin. Comedian Raphaël Mezrahi will provide the voice, but Messi will pose for the questions and answers 'with the innocence of a dog'.

Who will take his title? There's much chat about Kodi, the Griffon cross who will play the prosecuted Cosmos in French-Swiss actress Laetitia Dosch's directorial debut, Dog on Trial. By all accounts, a dog will also play a pivotal role in Leonardo Van Dijl's tennis academy saga, Julie Keeps Quiet, while the ensemble must be in with a good bark, sorry, shout for Guan Hu's Black Dog, which reveals how the Chinese authorities cleared the Beijing streets of strays in the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games. Every dog, it seems, can have its day at Cannes. But may the best dog win.