Kolkata: “What you have done is truly remarkable. Highlighting a film that comes from an indigenous region and speaks a tribal language,” Naga filmmaker Theja Rio said in his acceptance speech at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday night.In a landmark moment for Indian cinema, especially films from the northeast, Rio’s debut feature “Angh” won this year’s TIFF Platform Prize, chosen from a group of 12 films from across the world.The win also gives the film a chance to be nominated in the International feature films section of the 2027 Academy Awards.Under the Academy’s new rules, the TIFF win makes “Angh” eligible for Oscar consideration, irrespective of whether it is India’s official submission. India now has two films in contention for nomination in the Best International Film category — its official submission, Marathi film “Gondhal”, and “Angh”.The Konyak-language film is a feature-length version of Rio’s short film of the same name, which won a special jury award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2021.“I come from a small town in the northeast of India where dreams don’t often come true for my people,” Rio said in his speech. “So, if I may, I would like to dedicate this award to everyone back home.”Set in the 1960s in the forests near the Indo-Myanmar border, “Angh” tells the story of Anghba, the last surviving chief of a Nagaland village deserted by its people. The chief stays behind with his ailing wife and mute young son, holding on as the world around them changes irrevocably, particularly with the arrival of an American missionary.Shot on 16mm film by Polish cinematographer Adam Pietkiewicz, “Angh” features non-actors portraying its indigenous characters, alongside BAFTA-winning Scottish actor Douglas Henshall.The jury praised the film for its “refreshing perspectives, strength of filmmaking, and deeply resonant portrait of a world”, while applauding the 31-year-old filmmaker’s “vision, audacity and courage”.While “Angh” could help break the stereotype of under-representation of stories from the northeast with its Oscar entry next year, Rio and the region now have a historic TIFF honour to celebrate.As Rio described his film on the TIFF website, the victory is also “a gesture of remembrance, of pride, and of presence. A way of saying that we are here, that we have always been here, and that our stories deserve to stand alongside the rest of the world.”
