Set in Nagaland in the early 1960s and told in the Konyak language, Angh follows a former village chief and his young son as they remain in one of the last communities holding on to an ancient way of life. Their isolated existence is disrupted by the arrival of an American missionary, bringing questions of faith, cultural identity and a changing world into the father-son relationship. The film stars Indigenous actors from Nagaland alongside Scottish actor Douglas Henshall.
The win is particularly significant because the Academy changed its rules for the 99th Oscars. From this year, a non-English-language film can enter the International Feature Film competition through two routes. It can be submitted by an eligible country or region, as before, or it can qualify by winning a designated award at one of six international film festivals. The six awards are the Golden Bear for Best Film at Berlin, the Busan Award for Best Film at Busan, the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the Platform Award at Toronto and the Golden Lion at Venice. Angh becomes the first film to use TIFF’s newly designated pathway.
Meanwhile, Marathi film Gondhal, directed by Santosh Davakhar, was selected by the Film Federation of India as India’s official submission for the Oscars 2027. It will therefore enter the Oscars through the traditional country-selection route, while Angh has qualified independently through its TIFF victory.
Malayalam cinema made a particularly distinctive appearance with Half, directed by Samjad, while Shaunak Sen returned to TIFF with Termite, a 31-minute Hindi-Urdu short set in Old Delhi.
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