Sep 20, 2026 9:58pm IST
Theja Rio’s ‘Angh’ Wins TIFF Platform Competition, Marking Historic Milestone for Indian Cinema (EXCLUSIVE)
Theja Rio, Naga filmmaker and director of “Angh,” won the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF Platform Competition today at the 51st TIFF edition. It is the second film after Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s “Dear Jassi” won the TIFF Platform Competition in 2023. Nonetheless, it is a historic milestone for an Indian director based in India, and an Indigenous Naga director from India’s North East, as Singh is based in North America.
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Says Theja Rio, “Winning the Platform Competition Award is an incredible honor and something I’m still processing. To have a film from Nagaland—an Indigenous region in Northeast India, spoken in a tribal language—receive this recognition at TIFF means a great deal, not only for me but for everyone who helped bring the film to life. It feels deeply validating to see our stories and our community embraced on a global stage.”
Asked about their Academy Awards campaign, Rio says, “As for the Academy Awards, we’re taking it one step at a time. Right now, we’re focused on celebrating this moment and sharing the film with audiences. Of course, we will do our best with whatever lies ahead, because opportunities like these are incredibly rare and not something we take for granted. We feel very fortunate to be in this position and will approach the next steps with both excitement and humility.”
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Indigenous Naga woman Producer Nancy Nisa Beso says, “As per the rules of the Film Federation of India (FFI) that selects India’s official Oscar entry, you need to release your film for a minimum of seven days in a theatre before September 30. We were ready to release our film (September 23-30) in a theatre. I did the same with Raam Reddy’s “Jugnuma: The Fable” last year. You don’t need to release it before, but you need to have it as an undertaking. FFI circular said that it would announce it on September 19, but yes, it was advanced this year.”
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