Top Dog Film Festival 2025

Film Highlights from the 2025 Line-Up:

Eben  |  USA  |  14 minutes
Meet the world's coolest, most adventurous French Bulldog, living his best life one hike, campfire, and wild adventure at a time. Alongside his mum and dad, he journeys across the globe, embracing every challenge and triumph with an open heart and unstoppable spirit. Through playful reflections and soulful wisdom, this lovable pup — Eben — shares his life lessons with his "friends" in the audience, inspiring us to live passionately, love deeply, and savor every moment (especially if seals are involved). Full of heart, humour, and hope, Eben is a celebration of life's simple joys and the magic of living in the present.

Brought Back To Life  |  USA  |  5 minutes
When an unexpected chance for a new beginning appears, do we choose to go along for the ride? One man's journey becomes a dog's destiny when he takes a leap of faith, changing careers to become a search and rescue dog handler. Along the way, he meets Topa — a spirited dog who, against all odds, chooses him as her handler. Together, they forge an unbreakable bond, transforming each other's lives through hope, resilience, and trust. Topa is a heartfelt story of two souls rising from hardship, blossoming into a new life side by side.

Canine Conceirge  |  Australia  |  27 Minutes
Meet three remarkable canines integral to their unique accommodations. At Canada’s Fairmont Chateau Whistler, young Archie, the friendly canine ambassador, greets guests and frolics through the snow, a sidekick to the hotel’s guides on outdoor tours. Down Under at Tasmania’s Peppers Silo Hotel, we have another Archie - an eleven-year-old black lab who didn’t make the cut as a guide dog but puts his training to use as comforter for guests and staff alike at his hotel home. And in London’s historic Browns Hotel, dapper Dash is the face for pampered pooches whose high-profile humans accompany them on elegant overnights. These resident dogs are the real VIPs, making every stay and workday better!

George  |  UK
In the windswept fells of Cumbria, UK, a seven-week-old black and white puppy named George bounds into the life of Jacob Tonkin, a fellrunner battling debilitating disease and depression. This scruffy bundle of energy promptly transforms Jacob's world with boundless enthusiasm and infectious joy. The film follows George as he grows from tiny puppy to beloved companion, watching him navigate the rugged Cumbrian landscape with an energy that gradually rekindles his human's will to live. Witness how unconditional love becomes a lifeline, pulling Jacob back onto the mountain paths they both cherish. George is ultimately about how sometimes salvation comes on four paws—how the love of a dog can literally save a life, one mountain, one run, one joyful moment at a time.

Wingman  |  USA  |  8 minutes
After a 28-year career in the United States Air Force — serving across numerous African and Middle Eastern conflicts, piloting Air Force One for the President, and earning the rank of Brigadier General — Scott had witnessed more than his fair share of hardship and trauma. Yet it wasn’t until retirement that the true battle began, as he struggled with the unseen aftermath of a lifetime in service. It was then that a beautiful Labrador named Bear entered his life, offering the steadfast companionship and healing that Scott never knew he needed. Together, they embarked on a new journey — one of hope, resilience, and the quiet power of connection.

Hustle and Run  |  UK  |  19 minutes
Hustle and Run is a joyful, exhilarating underdog story from an unexpected corner of British sport. The film follows maverick captain Jeannette and her team, the Aces - a ragtag band of women from the Medway towns in Kent - competing in the fast and furriest world of Flyball. Also known as “the F1 of dog sports” and “a posh game of fetch.” In a sport dominated for decades by border collies and conventional thinking, this unfancied, backwater team gambles on Hustle - a tiny, mercurial whippet considered too untrainable for the sport. From that moment everything changes. What unfolds is an intimate, uplifting story of community, belief and overlooked talent, as they chase their dream all the way to Flyball’s greatest stage: Crufts.

LUX  |  France  |  13 minutes
In the vast wilderness of Africa, a bloodhound Lux emerges as an unlikely hero in the fight against rhino poaching. With exceptional tracking abilities, this four-legged guardian represents the cutting edge of wildlife conservation, standing between survival and extinction for Africa's ancient giants. Capable of following spoor for days across extreme terrain, Lux can cover sixty times the area of a ranger working alone. Working alongside his dedicated handler, every successful track could mean the difference between life and death for the continent's remaining rhinos. Lux celebrates the extraordinary tracker dogs who have become the unsung heroes of wildlife protection, demonstrating that sometimes the fate of an entire species rests in the paws of man's most loyal companion.

SUPERNOVA: The 100 Mile Dog  |  USA
Join 7 year-old Hungarian Vizsla Nova and her ultra running Dad, Evan Birch, as the pair attempt to run the Orcas Island 100 mile race in Washington State. A former emergency responder, Birch took up running as a means to cope with work-related stress and when Nova was just four months old, she started to run with him. As his distances increased, so did Nova's. Through the forest, fog and night they explored, they ran and they believed that this was possible. But it was never about a finish line; it was instead an adventure into the unknown. Standing at the start, one of them understood what lay ahead and the other was simply ready to run.

IF YOU CAN  |  Ukraine  |  2 minutes
This contemplative animated short brings a philosophical reflection on human nature to life through elegant, minimalist visuals that explore the simple contentment found in our canine companions. Using a restrained palette of warm earth tones, the Ukrainian filmmaker follows parallel narratives of a human and their dog throughout a single day, contrasting a person's daily struggles, with their dog's effortless joy and natural ability to find happiness in simple moments. Through subtle character animation and symbolic imagery, with thoughtful observations resonating through voice-over, the parallel stories converge in a moment of realisation where the human observes their dog's natural state of grace, concluding with the gentle revelation that perhaps inner peace is found not in human complexity, but in embracing the honest, loving, and unprejudiced nature that dogs embody effortlessly.