Oscars 2024: Anatomy of a Fall dog Messi goes viral after 'clapping' in audience

The famous pooch has proved a popular feature of this awards season
Tina Campbell11 March 2024
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Canine actor Messi, who appeared in Oscar winning Anatomy of a Fall, became the talk of this year’s ceremony after a sweet moment with him was a break-out hit on social media.

Question marks had hung over whether the French-based pup - who has proven a popular feature of this awards season - would make it over to the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, but indeed he did and looking incredibly dapper in a bow tie to boot.

In a highlight of the evening, the cameras were seen cutting away to the VIP (very important pooch), who appeared to be “clapping” after Robert Downey Jr was named Best Supporting Actor for his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer. 

A behind-the-scenes clip shared on social media revealed that the “clapping” moment been pre-recorded and was not part of the live Oscars broadcast, but viewers didn’t care as they rushed to X, formerly known as Twitter, to hail him the real star of the night.

“Just give the dog all of the Oscars now!” declared one person.

“Bravo!” echoed another.

Among the comments were people sharing their delight over a clip that appeared to show Ryan Gosling being just as excited by Messi’ appearance as them, giving off a huge grin.

 Host Jimmy Kimmel even gave a mention to Messi in his opening monologue, with the comedian joking that he “gave the performance of the year”. 

“Messi, who even though he’s a dog, may have given the performance of the year in Anatomy of a Fall,' Kimmel joked. 'Messi has an overdose scene, if you’ve seen it you’ve known it. It’s incredible.

“Honestly I haven’t seen a French actor eat his own vomit like that since Gérard Depardieu.”

Oscars 2024 - Winners

TOPSHOT-US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-AWARD-OSCARS-SHOW
1/10

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in