Boxer scoops Cannes dog prize

Cannes - A boxer called Boss, who sparks a deadly stampede of Friesian cows in Stephen Frears' film Tamara Drewe, on Friday scooped the Palm Dog prize at Cannes.

"Boss was a complete superstar and was crucial at innumerable plot moments and was the doggy denouement of the film," said Toby Rose, the organiser of the unofficial canine prize he awards along with leading British film critics.

The boxer had to fight off competition from an Irish wolfhound with which Russell Crowe bedded down after Lady Marian chased him out of her bedroom in Robin Hood, the film that opened the festival.

Last year a 3D dog from the Pixar-Disney comedy Up took the award - a diamante collar with the words Palm Dog stitched into it.

In 2008 it was won by a mongrel whose owner gets arrested for stealing dog-food in Wendy and Lucy. One year it went to a hound that was no more than a chalk outline in Dogville by Denmark's Lars von Trier.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the Palm Dog prize.