Could the FIDOS rival The Oscars – celebrating dogs in film.
The cultural significance of dogs is ingrained into our heritage, from the Fine Art masters like Sir Edwin Landseer and Gainsborough whose paintings give us a view of dogs in the 1800’s. Many of great Photographers from Man Ray to Richard Kalvar snapped timeless images that have captured dogs as man’s best friend through the 20th century.
What about dogs in film? We all know about Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, more recently the fame of Uggie, the Parsons Russel Terrier, who starred in the 2011 multi award winning comedy drama -The Artist.
Incredibly Rin Tin Tim earned more than Greta Garbo, and saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy in the early 1930’s - thanks to his box huge office takings. Marking his passing on August 10th 1932 and the huge loss to the silver screen the world stopped still for a minute’s silence.
Despite this, he never received an Oscar. Neither did Lassie, even though his co-star in Lassie Come Home, Elizabeth Taylor, famously said that Lassie was her best ever co-star.
The list of films is endless from Toto, the Cairn Terrier in The Wizard of Oz, Turner and Hooch, played by a Dogue de Bordeaux called Beasley, there’s Beethoven, Digby, White Fang , Haichi, and hundreds more – all these canines have stolen the show!
When cinema journalist, Toby Rose, a massive dog lover founded the FIDOS, (For Incredible Dogs On Screen), in 2007, and latterly the Palme Dog, Toby’s aim was to mirror the two big film awards, but celebrating the canine co-stars.
Uggie deservedly awarded Best in Year at the 2011 FIDOS, giving him the rightful accolade.
The FIDOS are held on the same Sunday as The Oscars, and this year were staged at the British Film Institute for the first time.
The red carpet was packed with a sparkling attendance of film critics, journalists, personalities, actors along with canine celebrities and influencers.
As Toby explained: “Our 2024 event raised the bark as it has been an extra special year because of the number of dogs in film from Barbie to Wonka to Napoleon. Plus, there’s been a trend of dogs starring alongside A listers, from Tilda Swinton to Will Ferrell to Mark Wahlberg.
The judging panel couldn’t have been more ‘qualified’ to make the decisions on which dogs would be awarded the bespoke designed collars by independent designer Creature Clothes.
An impressive judging panel included Kaleem Aftab, film writer and head of international programming for Red Sea Film Festival: Peter Bradshaw, film critic for The Guardian; Rita Di Santo, FIPRESCI film critic; Wendy Mitchell, film journalist and author of Citizen Canine; Tim Robey, film critic for Daily Telegraph; Anna Smith, film critic, broadcaster and host of Girls On Film podcast; Joe Utichi, Executive Awards Editor at Deadline and Damon Wise, film Editor. The winners were:
Mutt Moment -Winner: Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet) - Messi, the border collie
Blockbuster Bowser The Little Mermaid (dir. Rob Marshall) - Max, the Old English Sheepdog called Gary, who played Max, was in London to collect his special collar
Comedy Canine Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) - black standard poodle in Paris
Rom Com Rover - Barbie (dir Greta Gerwig) - Sugar, a West Highland White Terrier
Historical Hound Napoleon (dir Ridley Scott) - Fortune, Josephine’s Pomeranian
Best In Year: Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet) - Messi, the border collie
There’s even been indications that some of the lavish campaigning that has become a hallmark of the Oscars is starting to spill over into the FIDOS.
In February, Border Collie, Messi’s bid for the top award received a huge boost when he was flown to Los Angeles from his French home to mingle with Hollywood’s glitterati.
Messi had lunch with Bradley Cooper and Billie Eilish, plaudits from Emma Stone and an encounter with Ryan Gosling that went viral online.
Messi’s film role in Anatomy of a Fall as an assistance dog to a visually impaired boy who is the only witness to his father’s death, includes a scene when Snoop, Messi’s character, almost dies.
At one point Messi’s performance was so realistic that Ryan Gosling rushed over to help!
It begs the question, could The Oscars and The FIDOS converge?
Tune into A DOG'S LIFE for live interviews at the FIDOS here
