Panda wins the 2025 Palm Dog award at Cannes — and a look-alike accepts-OxBig News Network

Lola receives the Palm Dog award on-behalf of the canine named Panda, winner of the award for his greatest canine efficiency within the movie ‘The Love that Remains’ in the course of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

It’s known as the Palm Dog contest, however Friday’s winner of the annual Cannes Film Festival custom was a Panda.

Panda, although, is an Icelandic sheepdog who stars in The Love That Remains, from Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason. Always positioned on the tail finish of the competition, the beachside Palm Dog ceremony comes a day earlier than the winner of the competition’s Palme d’Or is introduced.

Pálmason’s tragicomic movie, which premiered at Cannes not in competitors, follows 5 characters — Panda included — over the course of a yr after the breakdown of a wedding. Panda is ever-present and really a lot a part of the on-screen household and on the coronary heart of the film.

Panda, who retains her title within the movie, is Pálmason’s canine and stars alongside his real-life kids within the film, which can clarify the award-winning efficiency.

While Panda sadly couldn’t be there to gather the award, a look-alike native pooch was available to gather the coveted canine collar together with one of many movie’s human producers. Panda did make a digital look with an acceptance video, on a automotive journey by means of Iceland. She succeeds final yr’s winner, Kodi, from Dog on Trial.

This yr’s awards marked the twenty fifth anniversary of the much-loved occasion. Palm Dog founder Toby Rose defined that it has had extra influence that he may think about, changing into a fixture at Cannes.

“We honour the four-legged here just so they get a bit of their moment before the big dresses and the tuxedos take over,” Rose stated.

Other prizes included the Mutt Moment Award, for stealing the scene. This went to a long-haired dachshund and a rottweiler, for his or her roles in raunchy BDSM biker drama Pillion, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling. The scene in query includes the movie’s two lovers bringing their respective canine to a nighttime tryst.

In a thank-you assertion, director Harry Lighton described Hippo the dachshund’s “raw sex appeal” and stated she’s the true domme in Pillion.

Finally the grand jury prize was awarded to mystical Spanish odyssey Sirât, for Jack Russell terrier Pipa and Lupita, a Podenco cross. The story follows a father looking for his daughter throughout the desert, accompanied by his son — and Pipa and Lupita.

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Lead actor Jade Oukid was there in individual to gather the award alongside director Oliver Laxe. She instructed the gathered viewers that Lupita was her personal canine, who had sadly died quickly after filming. After the present, Rose added that Lupita could be immortalized with this prize: “We were so happy that we could celebrate a short life.”

The Palm Dog has seen many a well-known visitor come down to choose up their awards in individual. Quentin Tarantino got here in individual to gather the award in 2019 when Brandy the pit bull in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood received. And, in 2021, Tilda Swinton attended the ceremony to choose up the prize when her personal three canine, Rose, Dora and Snowbear, received the award for his or her roles in Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir II. Some canine have turn out to be mini-celebrities in their very own proper, together with Messi from Anatomy of a Fall.