Canine from 'Arabian Nights' fetches Palm Dog award at Cannes

The coveted Palm Dog award for best canine was fetched at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday by Lucky, who appears in an epic Portuguese film, "Arabian Nights".

The Maltipoo breed -- half Maltese and half miniature poodle -- even barked a recorded acceptance speech.

Lucky left several other canine performers fur-ustrated as she snapped up the top prize, which was presented at the UK Film Centre pavilion.

The second-place jury prize went to the father-son Border Collies that appeared in eccentric fable "The Lobster" alongside Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, which the jury said was the first time a dog had played a human trapped in a dog's body.

But there was no doubting that Lucky was top dog of the festival, not least because of her extensive wardrobe in "Arabian Nights".

"I think it was the jumpers (sweaters) -- it has 10 different dog jumpers in this film from checked to red," said Kate Muir, film critic for The Times, on presenting the award, adding that Lucky also proved her ability to fetch newspapers.

"In a way, the performance straddles the magic realist and social realist meaning of the film, because it also appears as a ghost," Muir added.

The Palm Dog, now in its 15th year, has sometimes been a bone of contention with the French press, which has argued it is an unwanted intrusion of British silliness into the country's glamourous proceedings.

One French journalist, looking on bemused from the back of the room, said he was not sure what to make of it.

"Luckily, I like dogs," he said. "But seen from the French perspective, this is a bit bizarre. The British are weird."

Peter Bradshaw, film critic for The Guardian and a member of the Palm Dog jury, dismissed the criticism and said the award should be seen as a "much-needed dose of Anglo-Saxon common sense".

Master of ceremonies Toby Jones thanked the jury for its efforts, which he said were done on an entirely "pro bone-o" basis, and hoped that the dogs that missed out on this year's award did not feel they were "persona non-barka".