Theja Rio’s feature debut, ‘Angh’, has won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, giving the film automatic entry for consideration in the 2027 Academy Awards’ international feature film category, subject to the Academy’s other requirements.
The prize was awarded on September 21 after the film’s world premiere at the festival in 2026. Rio, a 31-year-old Nagaland native based in London, becomes the first filmmaker with a non-English-language Platform Prize winner to receive this direct route to Academy Awards consideration.
The Platform Prize is the Toronto International Film Festival’s juried competition award. This year’s Platform section comprised 12 handpicked films chosen from over 4,000 submissions from nearly 90 countries. ‘Angh’ was the only Indian film selected for the section.
The jury praised the film for “its refreshing perspective, strength of filmmaking, and deeply resonant portrait of a world”.
Set in the early 1960s, ‘Angh’ takes place in a remote village in Nagaland near the Indo-Burma border. It follows Anghba, the last surviving chief of the village. Most of the film’s dialogue is in Konyak, meeting the relevant language requirement for Academy Awards consideration.
The feature expands Rio’s 2021 short film of the same name, which won a Special Jury Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Rio wrote the feature screenplay with James Davis.
Anghlong Konyak leads the cast, alongside Douglas Henshall, Sobino Rengma, Genpai Konyak, Amah Konyak and Wangton Konyak. Nancy Nisa Beso and Rio produced the film.
Rio is a graduate of the UK’s National Film and Television School. The Platform Prize places his first feature among the films that can now seek a place in the Academy Awards’ international feature film category for 2027, provided it meets the Academy’s remaining conditions.
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