On Saturday, the Cannes Film Festival jury will unveil the winners of this year’s festival, including the 2023 Palme d’Or, but for Cannes festival regulars, and animal lovers everywhere, the true highlight of any Croisette visit is the Palm Dog, the unofficial awards show celebrating canine performances across the festival’s official selection and various sidebars.

This year’s top prize went to Messi, the border collie who plays Snoop in Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, with the jury praising a doggie performance “that covers the gambit… one of the best we’ve ever seen.” Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter (whose coverage had mentioned Messi as a Palm Dog frontrunner), Triet said the character of Snoop “was not just another character or some animal running around [but] as much a part of the film’s ensemble as any of the other actors.”

What used to be an inside joke has become,...