Naga filmmaker Theja Rio has won the Platform Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for his debut feature Angh, giving the film a direct route to consideration in the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.

Angh was the only Indian film to have its world premiere in TIFF’s Platform section this year, a competitive programme focused on distinctive, director-driven cinema. The 99th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place on March 14, 2027, in Los Angeles, California.

In his acceptance speech, Rio described the recognition of a film from an indigenous region and spoken in a tribal language as “truly special”.

“I come from a small town in the Northeast of India where dreams do not often come true for my people. So if I may, I would like to dedicate this award to everyone back home. This is just the beginning,” he said.

The award comes a week after Santosh Davakhar’s Gondhal was selected as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category, where Angh will now compete for consideration.

Changes introduced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in May mean films that win a top jury prize at major international film festivals, including Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and Venice, can qualify for consideration in the Best International Feature Film category.

Speaking to the Canadian Press after his win, Rio said simply bringing Angh to TIFF had been an achievement in itself.

“Just getting our film to come here has been an incredible achievement but then to have a spotlight shine on it with an award is the stuff of dreams,” he said.

Rio said his primary aim had been to make a film about where he comes from and have the voices of his community heard.

“I wanted to make a film about where I come from, I wanted to tell a story, I wanted to have our voices heard and that remained my number one priority,” he said.

“But to be here at TIFF and to win an award with this is just a dream come true. It just keeps getting more surreal and I hope it is a dream I do not wake up from. Long way to go as my producers here would say, it is another battle to get nominated. But very happy, very grateful and very proud of the film we have all been able to make.”

The film’s production also involved casting non-professional actors, a process Rio said was necessary because of the lack of an established film industry in the region.

“We come from a region where the film industry is almost non-existent, so that means we don’t have a lot of professional actors where we come from. We had to go to the villages and street cast,” he said in an interview with TIFF.

The team would typically find three or four people in each village who had never appeared on a film set before and had little idea of what they were getting into.

Rio said the process allowed the performers to bring aspects of their own cultural backgrounds and personalities to their roles, helping create what he described as a “three dimensional character”.

“They come in with their glass empty,” he said.

Set in Nagaland in the 1960s, Angh follows Angbha, played by Anghlong Konyak, the last surviving chief of a deserted village. He remains there with his ailing wife and non-speaking young son after banishing the villagers when they converted to Christianity.

The story takes a turn when Angbha encounters an American missionary, played by Douglas Henshall, who expresses his desire to give “the truth”. Angbha responds by shouting, “Do not speak to me like an animal”.

The exchange reflects the tensions between the characters as they confront questions of faith, identity and cultural change.

Shot on 16mm film, Angh presents the history of conversion through an archival visual language, avoiding sentimentality while observing how the process operates.

The film has also received a warm response from audiences in Toronto, according to Rio, who told the Canadian Press that despite being “oceans apart”, there was a resonance between the cultures.

He also pointed to TIFF’s history of championing filmmakers as one of the reasons the team wanted to bring the film to the festival.

The High Commission of Canada acknowledged the film’s presence at TIFF on X, saying its participation celebrated India’s diverse cinematic landscape and storytelling traditions while highlighting creative talent from Northeast India.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio also congratulated the filmmaker and his team on X.

“Congratulations to the Director and the team of ‘ANGH’ on winning the prestigious Platform Prize at TIFF. This historic win marks a proud moment for Nagaland and India, and carries a Naga debut onto the Oscar journey,” he wrote.

“It is also a proud moment for our region and its storytellers on the global stage as ‘ANGH’ brings Naga cinema and its talent into the spotlight. My best wishes to the entire team for their journey ahead,” he added.