CANNES, France? – The race for the top canine prize at Cannes was shaping up well Monday after Russell Crowe bedded down with an Irish wolfhound and a boxer caused a deadly stampede of Friesian cows.

"The tenth Palm Dog will be as fiercely contested as ever in this momentous year of dogs at Cannes," said Toby Rose, who for the last decade has hooked up with British film critics to pick the best screen mutt for the unofficial gong.

The festival's opening film, "Robin Hood," saw an Irish wolfhound curling up beside the legendary outlaw played by Russell Crowe after Cate Blanchett's Lady Marian sent him off to sleep in a servant's room instead of with her.

Another major contender for the award, to be handed out on Friday two days ahead of the official Palme d'Or, is the boxer dog in Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe" whose rural rampage sparks a bovine stampede, Rose told AFP.

But with four more days to go before the prize is handed out, the field is still wide open.

Last year a 3D dog from the Pixar-Disney comedy "Up" took the award -- a diamante collar with the words Palm Dog stitched into it.

In 2008 it was won by a mongrel whose owner gets arrested for stealing dog-food in "Wendy and Lucy". One year it went to a hound that was no more than a chalk outline in "Dogville" by Denmark's Lars von Trier.