Are Film Festivals Going to the Dogs?

Are film festivals going to the dogs? Nope. The dogs are going to the film festivals with a walk up the red carpet, a ceremony and trophies. The four-legged stars of the Oscar-winning film THE QUEEN are the winners of Britain's first-ever Fido Awards for canine cinematic excellence, presented at the Times BFI Film Festival 29 October. Why shouldn't the five corgis, who appeared with Helen Mirren get recognized? Read all about it on the Fido Awards Web site.

The Cannes festival started the whole thing in 2001 by instituting the Palm Dog Award, which consists of a black collar with "Palm Dog" stitched onto it. The winner that year was Otis, the canine lead in THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY, starring, written and directed by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming.

The co-winners this last May were Yuki, a cartoon dog from PERSEPOLIS (French-Iran, animation) and Keng and Peak, from the Thai movie MID ROAD GANG.

Last year's winner was Mops, a doll-sized dog featured in Sofia Coppola's MARIE ANTOINETTE. Was that a sly message to Sofia?

Read more about the Times BFI Film Festival on my Film Festival Page (link on right sidebar).