Theja Rio's Konyak-Language Debut 'Angh' Wins Toronto Platform Prize, Opens Unusual Oscar Path

Key facts

• Angh, directed by Theja Rio, won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2026.
• The film is in Konyak, a tribal language, and comes from Nagaland, an Indian state of fewer than two million people.
• It was Rio's first feature, and most of its cast faced a camera for the first time.
• The Platform Prize recognizes films with a particularly distinctive directorial voice; the jury praised Rio's 'refreshing perspective'.
• Under new rules, winners of designated prizes at six international festivals can qualify for consideration in the 2027 Academy Awards International Feature Film category without relying solely on their country's official submission.
• Angh is set in the early 1960s and follows Anghba, an ageing hereditary Konyak chief, and his young son as Christianity spreads; Scottish actor Douglas Henshall plays an American missionary.
• The Konyaks are one of Nagaland's 17 major tribes, concentrated in the eastern district of Mon, where chiefs are known as Anghs.
• Nagaland formally became an Indian state in December 1963.
• The film was shot on 16mm by cinematographer Adam Pietkiewicz, with exposed cans sent to Mumbai every four or five days for processing.
• Producer Nancy Nisa Beso and actors Anglong Konyak and Sobino Rengma appear in the film; critic Siddhant Adlakha praised its ambiguity and Rio's treatment of the forest as a home with a history.