TORONTO: Nagaland filmmaker Theja Rio’s debut feature Angh won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), giving the Konyak-language film a route towards consideration for the 2027 Academy Awards.
Under new rules, winners of designated prizes at six international festivals can qualify for consideration in the International Feature Film
Category without relying solely on a national submission. However, the TIFF victory does not make Angh an Oscar nominee. Rio said his producers had expected success in Toronto. “They thought we were going to win. I wasn’t.”
Set in the early 1960s, Angh follows an ageing hereditary Konyak village chief and his young son during a period of social and religious change.
Scottish actor Douglas Henshall plays an American missionary whose arrival adds to the changing world around them.
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Most of the cast had never acted on camera before. Meanwhile, Konyak advisers worked on dialogue, costumes and production design.
Rio and cinematographer Adam Pietkiewicz shot the film on 16mm. They drew visual inspiration from photographs and footage of missionaries and Naga communities from the 1950s and 1960s.
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The production required sending exposed film to Mumbai for processing every four or five days. As a result, the crew kept shooting without immediately knowing what they had captured. Angh has yet to reach a wider audience.
