Uggie the star of ‘The Artist’ wins movie mutt award

PARIS: Uggie the adorable terrier from the Oscarwinning film ‘The Artist’ was posthumously awarded the Palm Dog of Palm Dogs Friday for the best canine performance ever at the Cannes film festival.

With the film world in mourning after Cannes was cancelled because of the coronavirus, the ceremony was conducted virtually, with Dash – Uggie’s old friend and understudy, who also appeared in the 2011 silent comedy – accepting the diamanteencrusted collar on his behalf.

Uggie passed away five years ago aged 13 but not before charming the world after making his first big splash at Cannes.

The Palm Dog is the doggie version of the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and almost as sought after, with Quentin Tarantino, Noah Baumbach and Jim Jarsmusch among a galaxy of top-dog directors who have emerged from the pack with the highly-prized collar between their teeth.

Palm Dog founder Toby Rose said he decided to honour Uggie not just for being the greatest Hollywood hound in the Palm Dog’s two-decade history, but for proudly wearing the collar on his worldwide publicity tour.

“Every single year a journalist will pose the question, ‘Is there going to be a year with (films with) no dogs?’ We been doing this 19, coming on 20 years and dogs and directors never fail to come up with the goods,” he added.

Indeed Tarantino admitted that he had his eye on the collar last year for ‘my wonderful actress Brandy’, a pit bull who liked to chomp cans of tinned rat and who savaged the baddies in the gory final scene of ‘Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood’.

“I’m not going to give this to her – it’ll go on my mantelpiece,” he said after the dog who very nearly upstaged Brad Pitt won the award. Uggie’s trainer Omar Von Muller said winning the Palm Dog was the launchpad for ‘The Artist’ and its fairytale Oscar success.