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| Quentin Tarantino at the Palm Dog awards with a pitbull lookalike in place of Brandy Photo: Palm Dog |
Quentin Tarantino has received his first award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival - for the canine called Brandy who helps create the blood bath at the end of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the hottest ticket at this year’s event.
The director turned up person for the Palm Dog awards earlier today (24 May). They were established by journalist and impresario Toby Rose for the best performance by a canine at the Festival.
Tarantino praised Brandy, who was unable to make it to the Riviera but did sterling service on the film when she played the pit bull pet of Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Booth. “I want to thank the jury from the bottom of my black heart,” quipped Tarantino. “And at least I won’t go home empty handed.” He will take the dog collar prize back to LA and hand it over to Brandy.
He added: “"When I was editing the movie I realised, she's a great actress. I actually started seeing things in her face when I was cutting it together that I didn't see on the day, so whatever little difficulties we had on set just really melted away when I saw what a great performance she gave."
Other dogs received honours in what was regarded as lightweight year for canine performances. They included Bello from the sci-fi horror film Little Joe, and a special mention went to the canine cast of Aasha And The Street Dogs (shown in the Cannes market), the first live-action dog drama shot in India.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which was moderately to well received by the critics, also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie and is in contention for the big prizes which will be revealed at the closing ceremony tomorrow (25 May).
