‘Gravity’ Dog Wins Canine Film Award

Gravity is expected to pick up many accolades during the forthcoming film awards season, and even a Greenland husky, who is not even seen in the movie, has been rewarded with two gongs for her work on the box office hit.

Naanak was crowned best in the world at Sunday’s Fido awards, which was hosted in London and is devoted to honoring canine excellence on the big screen. Naanak also picked up the blockbuster bowser prize.

The pooch’s voice features prominently in a scene where Sandra Bullock’s astronaut makes a distress call from space down to Earth.

Bullock’s Dr Ryan Stone, after floating in space all alone for most of the film, finds herself stranded inside a Russian Soyuz capsule and looks to have finally given up hope of ever returning back Earth.

However, Stone manages to finally make a call from her radio down to her home planet below, only to realise that the man on the other end, Orto, can’t speak a word of English.

During the scene, Stone tries to speak to the man, but their language barrier stops any communication. She then hears a dog barking and starts to mimic it alongside Orto.

In Gravity we only get to see this scene from Bullock’s perspective but the same dog is a prominent character in the short film, Aningaaq, which works as a companion piece to Gravity and tells the tale from Naanak’s owner’s point of view.

Aningaaq was written and directed by Jonas Cuaron, the son of Gravity’s director Alfonso Cuaron who also co-wrote the sci-fi hit with his father.

Orto Ignatiussen stars as an Inuit fisherman who has traveled all the way to a fjord in Greenland with his dogs. Orto attempts to inform Ryan Stone that he has to kill one of his dying dogs, who has been injured in the journey. However, Stone is unable to understand his toil.

Aningaaq is set to be submitted in the live-action short film category at this year’s Academy Awards. If both Aningaaq and Gravity do receive nominations then it will be the first time that a film and its spin-off have been nominated in the same year.

Also at the Fidos, a dog heard talking in the US comedy, Small Apartments, a lapdog in The Great Gatsby, and a Chihuahua from The Bling Ring took home other honours.

Unfortunately Naanak wasn’t present to pick up her gongs, so Suki, a fluffy white dog, accepted the trophy collar on her behalf. The ceremony was conducted at the Cinema Museum in south London, and was held on Sunday.