​Indian co-production ​Aasha and The Street Dogs wins at Cannes Film Festival 2019.

If you’ve not heard of it yet, the Palm Dog is the awards celebrating the best dog performances at the Cannes Film Festival. In its 19th year in 2019, it saw Quentin Tarantino’s Competition title featuring Leonardo Di Caprio and Brad Pitt won the Palm Dog for the performance by bowser Brandy in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But there is a surprise winner in an Indian co-production too.

​Aasha and The Street Dogs has won the Grand Jury Prize for the Palm Dog along with the film Little Joe for its canine performers. The film is the story of Aasha, a spirited and brave three-legged street dog who dreams of a better life. The all-animal feature was shot in Delhi, India, with an extraordinary cast of dogs, pigs, camels, cows and a charismatic young street kid. The film is not a part of the official lineup but was a part of the film market and is currently in post-production stage.

Written and directed by​ the Belgian born filmmaker​ Frederik Chau, who last directed the superdog film Underdog​, it is produced by Rohit Khattar of Cinestaan Film Company and independently by Shaan Vyas, along with Laurie Cook and Jason Newmark of Newscope Films​ of United Kingdom. 

The jury ​for the Palm Dog ​consisted of The Telegraph‘s Tim Robey, The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw, author Wendy Mitchell, Girls on Film podcast host Anna Smith, Italian journalist Rita di Santo, the i’s Kaleem Aftab and, from Deadline, AwardsLine editor Joe Utichi and contributor Damon Wise.