India’s ‘Angh’ Wins Toronto Platform Award, Nabs Automatic Oscar Contention

Indian feature “Angh,” the feature directorial debut of Theja Rio, has taken the top prize in the Toronto Film Festival‘s Platform section, an award that comes with automatic entry into the Oscars’ international feature film race for 2027.

“Angh” was the only Indian film selected for the section this year, and the win comes with an automatic berth in the Oscars’ international feature film race. India’s official submission to the category is “Gondhal,” which won Santosh Davakhar best director at the International Film Festival of India, Goa.

The story of “Angh” takes place in Nagaland during the 1960s, centering on an elderly Konyak chief and his son, two of the last holdouts in their village clinging to their ancestral beliefs as the world around them shifts irrevocably. The cast draws largely from indigenous Naga communities, joined by BAFTA winner Douglas Henshall.

Reviewing the film for Variety, Siddhant Adlakha wrote: “With disarming simplicity, ‘Angh’ challenges closely held notions of default filmic perspectives, offering a whole new world for us to consider through its soulful ruminations, while forcing us to reflect on the cost of our own unassuming norms. It is, in effect, a lament for things which have been lost, a quiet memorial that beats with righteous fury over how easily we let entire ways of life simply slip away – or rather, how we allow them to be snatched in the guise of progress.”

Nancy Nisa Beso and Rio produced “Angh.” Jungle Book Studio represents the film for international and local distribution, having picked up global sales rights before the movie’s Toronto premiere.

“It is a very special moment for me and for everyone associated with the film,” said Rio. “I am aware that it is rare for a debut film to receive this kind of recognition, and all I can say is that we made ‘Angh’ with a lot of love – for the place I come from, for my people and for our culture. At the heart of the film is the relationship between a father and son, but it is also about letting go, our relationship with home and the transient nature of life.”

Beso called her work with Rio one of the longest and most meaningful collaborations of her career, saying they had carried “Angh” for years, from a short film through to the feature, on the belief that the story had to be told on their own terms. “As a producer, I have carried a very deep sense of responsibility for this film, to believe in it when the path was uncertain, to keep finding ways to make it possible, and to protect the heart of what Theja wanted to say,” she said. “I hope it also encourages other filmmakers to take that leap and tell the stories that are close to their hearts, stories from their own communities, their own experiences, their own languages and their own corners of the world, even when they don’t fit neatly into what cinema is expected to be.”

Executive producer Gaurav Dhingra said the win was a moment “bigger than a film.” Describing his first look at the footage, he said: “I felt I was looking at something rare, a film born in Nagaland, made by Indigenous filmmakers, carrying the voice of a community rarely seen on the world’s biggest screens on its own terms.” Dhingra has produced films for 25 years, including “Peddlers,” “Faith Connections,” “Angry Indian Goddesses” and “Stolen.”

“Angh” marks the feature debut of Winter Hymns Films, a Nagaland production house previously known for its short films on the festival circuit. The film is also produced through Undercover Squirrel, a story-driven media company working across film, documentaries, digital media and commercials.