GUWAHATI: Angh, the debut feature by Nagaland filmmaker Theja Rio, won the Platform Prize at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sunday, September 20, giving the film a direct pathway to consideration in the International Feature Film category at the 2027 Academy Awards.
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Set in the early 1960s near the Indo-Burma border, Angh follows Anghba, the last surviving chief of a deserted Nagaland village. He remains in the village with his ailing wife and non-speaking young son as the community around them disappears and a new world begins to take shape.
Made almost entirely in the Konyak language, the film explores the tension between an inherited way of life and rapid cultural change. At the centre of the story is Anghba and his family, whose lives are transformed by the arrival of an American missionary.
The film examines themes of faith, identity, home, family and the painful process of letting go. Rather than presenting cultural change as a simple conflict between tradition and modernity, Angh focuses on how ordinary encounters and personal choices can reshape a community.
Angh was the only Indian film among the 12 titles selected for TIFF’s Platform Competition, the festival’s sole competitive section.
Under TIFF’s new 2026 arrangement, the Platform Prize provides the winning non-English-language film with a direct qualification pathway for consideration in the Academy’s International Feature Film category.
Accepting the award, Rio thanked the TIFF jury and said the recognition was particularly meaningful because it highlighted a film from an Indigenous region and told in a tribal language.
“I come from a small part of Northeast India, where dreams do not often come true for our people,” Rio said, describing the award as “just the beginning”. He dedicated the honour to people back home.
The Platform programme recognises films driven by distinctive directorial vision and storytelling. The Platform Prize carries a cash award of C$20,000 along with a trophy.