It was a big day in Cannes as Quentin Tarantino himself came to the Palm Dog awards to accept the top prize for cinematic canine for Brandy, the pit bull in Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood.
Quentin said, “The female dog in it was kind of difficult to get to do this and that. But we kind of did our best. It wasn’t until I was editing the movie that I realised, she’s kind of a good actress!” (that’s not Brandy herself, it’s a gorgeous local lookalike).
"I want to thank the jury from the bottom of my black heart," QT added. He said the coveted leather collar will go on “his mantelpiece of honour.”
The Grand Jury prize was awarded for the first time ex aequo to Aasha and the Street Dogs directed by Frederik Du Chau (screening in the market, India’s first live-action dog film) and Little Joe by Jessica Hausner.
The Palm DogManitarian award went to Google for its dog friendly workplaces.
The Underdog award, a new category, went to the RSPCA Huawei funded The Unadoptables promoting adoption of strays.
I was thrilled to serve on the jury alongside some greats: Kaleem Aftab (The I), Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian), Rita Di Santo (Vice President FIPRESCI), Anna Smith (Chair of London Critics Circle and Host of Girls on Film podcast), Tim Robey (The Telegraph), Joe Utichi (Deadline Hollywood), and Damon Wise (film critic and author).
I got to take the stage with Kaleem to present the prize to Aasha and the Street Dogs (and Toby kindly let me plug my book also, ha!)
Congrats to the tireless Toby Rose for the best Palm Dog yet!
Watch and read more here:
(you can spot me in the first part of the video on the right side in my gold and yellow jumper taking photos!)
And some more pics I took here showing off the great pooches that joined us on the day:
