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In the foggy woods outside New York City, a tolling retriever named Indy and his owner, Todd, attempt to settle into their new home — an old, isolated house where Todd’s grandfather and his golden retriever died suddenly, and the suspected culprit was a supernatural entity. While Todd doesn’t believe in the superstition, Indy senses a disturbing presence, determined to protect him from a threat that only he can see.
This is the plot of the indie horror film “Good Boy,” which was filmed from a canine’s perspective. For his performance, Indy won the Astra Award for Best Performance in a Horror or Thriller, beating famous talents like Alison Brie and Ethan Hawke.
This makes Indy the first dog in history to be nominated and win a human-exclusive acting award.
The internet was immediately divided over the announcement, some thrilled that animal actors were finally receiving recognition, exclaiming that Indy’s award was well-deserved, while others were furious that their favorite actors lost to a dog.
Seeing all this controversy on social media, I decided to watch Indy’s breakthrough movie and determine whether a dog deserves such a high accolade. While the story was straightforward and occasionally cheesy, I felt drawn into the narrative since I got to craft Indy’s dialogue myself — an enjoyable experience compared to other horror films, where I usually cover my eyes or distract myself by talking through the scarier scenes.
I could easily read Indy’s emotions through his barks and behavior; everything felt natural rather than instructed. A dog rewarded with countless treats behind the scenes conveyed a character scared out of his fur but determined to save his family.
Even though I admit Indy has talent, there is one thing that keeps me skeptical about giving animals human-exclusive awards, stemming from a remark by the film’s director, and Indy’s owner and trainer, Ben Leonberg.
In his pre-recorded acceptance speech, Leonberg said on behalf of Indy that he was thrilled to be “recognized for his work in a movie he does not totally understand he was in.” Although this remark may have been intended to humor the audience, it raises valid concerns about the appropriateness of nominating animals for prestigious film awards in competition with humans.
The ambiguity about whether Indy comprehended his role is insulting not only to an actor, who prepares and demonstrates significant skill and effort in their performances, but to the film community that evaluates, follows and recognizes the growth of these journeys.
However, we cannot ignore an animal’s intelligence, nor gloss over the evidence provided by previous four-legged film stars; Messi the border collie immediately comes to mind, who left a lasting impression with his performance in 2023’s “Anatomy of a Fall.”
For his performance as Snoop, Messi won the Palm Dog Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. I loved the movie and, like the rest of the internet, was seriously impressed by Messi’s skills, especially in the drug overdose scene, which I had never seen a trained dog act out and genuinely believed was happening on film. Until now, this was the highest award a dog film star had received.
Before Indy, Messi showed me how an animal could deliver convincing performances that capture our attention and play a crucial role in compelling storytelling. It also showed how similar an animal’s on-set responsibilities are to those of humans.
Like human actors undergoing chemistry tests to determine their co-stars, Messi had to build a strong bond with child actor Milo Machado-Graner. The two spent considerable time together so he could convincingly play Milo’s service dog. This shows that animal actors must also demonstrate critical thinking in solo scenes, responding promptly to behind-the-camera cues like a human actor. In “Good Boy,” Indy crawls under a bed in fear, squeezes beneath an armoire to investigate a haunting barking noise, gets trapped in a fox trap and walks across the house’s lower roof.
Audiences commonly express concern for an actor’s physical and mental health on set — this is true for both human and animal actors, and the same happened with Indy. After the movie’s release, Leonberg eased audience concerns about if Indy’s well-being was placed first, revealing that he was constantly attended to by his owners and performed scenes for one to three hours a day.
It is with these unifiers between human and animal actors — the ability to prepare for a role, the ability to conduct a scene independently and the need to be treated with respect and attentiveness on set — that make me favor the idea of animal actors winning human film accolades.
For this to work, I would like clarifications about what qualifies an animal for a human-only film award nomination, as the Astra Awards did not provide a statement on their qualifications.
I believe that to qualify, the animal’s role in the film should not be that of just a generic companion; they must significantly contribute to the narrative, like Messi, or star in the lead role, like Indy. Since this is still uncommon, it would be a good foundation for animal-to-human award regulations. If humans really want to progress animal rights, more films like Good Boy will be produced to nominate their stars.
While no such actions or clarifications have been confirmed, Indy’s accolade signals industry change, prompting animal performance activists like Leonberg to advocate for animal thespian rights at award ceremonies.
Reach Carlee Elders at letters@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.