Messi is owned by dog trainer Laura Martin Contini,[3][4] who adopted him from a neighbor when he was a puppy.

[5] Named after Argentine football player Lionel Messi,[5][6] he was the first dog that Contini trained for cinema.

[7][5] In 2023, Messi made his film debut playing the role of Snoop in Justine Triet's legal drama Anatomy of a Fall, for which he won the Palm Dog Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, with the jury stating that Messi's performance "covers the gambit... one of the best we've ever seen.

[14][12] Before the ceremony, the show's host, Jimmy Kimmel, shared a video in which he could be seen rehearsing his Oscars jokes with the dog.

[16] At the end of the show, Messi was shown appearing to urinate on Matt Damon's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of the satirical Damon–Kimmel feud.