Friends and family of nominated film stars are often nervous on the eve of a big cinema awards ceremony. For dog owner Liz Smith, the run-up to the first ever Fido Awards at the London Film Festival on 28 Oct. will be tense indeed.
Smith's five corgis - Anna, Poppy, Megan, Alice and Oliver - are all featured prominently in the Oscar-winning film The Queen, and are now joint contenders in the Historical Hound category at the inaugural awards event for dog performances on screen. If the dogs succeed in their bid for critical recognition, director Stephen Frears will be able to add a pack of four-legged actors to the long list of those who have already been saluted with Baftas, Golden Globes and Oscars for their part in his intimate portrait of the reaction of the British monarchy to the death of Princess Diana.
But competition for the Fidos, even in their first year, is ferocious. Among the other frontrunners in the historical category is the collie mix who appears in Control, Anton Corbijn's film about the life and early death of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the 1980s Manchester band Joy Division. The dog, owned by Samantha Morton's character in the film, appears at a crucial moment in the singer's descent into the world of drugs. Other categories to be judged by a panel of leading figures in the industry, including the veteran film critic Derek Malcolm, are Comedy Canine and Blockbuster Bowser. Dogs up for these awards include the animals featured in Nancy Meyers' The Holiday, Mike White's Year of the Dog and Michael Davis's Shoot'em Up.
PHOTO: AP
Helen Mirren, who played Elizabeth II in Frears' film, had to share the screen with the dogs in many of her key scenes. It proved intensive work with which she remains very pleased. "The corgis were not film-trained. I had to work with them to follow me," said Mirren last week." But I am good with dogs and know how to get them to do what I want. I loved those Corgis because they were funny. I can understand why the Queen has them. Forget winning an Oscar, I'd be more proud of an award for dog handling."
Smith's talented pets, nine-year-old Anna, seven-year-old Poppy and her three-year-old puppies, were spotted at an obedience competition by an animal consultant out scouting for suitable dogs for the film. It was the corgis' first experience of the entertainment industry but while shooting The Queen, Smith, a retired outside caterer from Little Blakenham near Ipswich, became known as Corgi Liz on the set. She accepted a booking for her dogs in the prime-time BBC six-part drama, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, in which they co-starred with Jane Horrocks.
The Fidos follow in the pawprints of the canine event at the Cannes Film Festival known as the Palme Dog, now in its seventh year. Both events are masterminded by Toby Rose, who said this weekend he was very pleased to have broken into another major European film festival. The Fidos, he argues, are an antidote to the pomposity of the film industry and provide a different take on the year's cinematic hits. 'When you start looking out for the dogs it is incredible what key performers they often are and what key moments they are often involved in,' said Rose.
The BFI festival opens on Wednesday and its creative director, Sandra Hebron, said she believes the ceremony will become a fixture. "No seasoned festival-goer can have failed to notice the splash that the Palme Dog award has made at the Cannes Film Festival, so it is wonderful news that the winners of the sister ceremony, the Fidos, will become part of London Film Festival 2007."
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