Sep 18, 2026 12:52pm IST
TIFF2026: A Record 17 Indian And South Asian Films At Toronto International Film Festival
India and South Asia have notched a remarkable record of 17 films from India, South Asia and Diaspora at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) official selection (September 10-20).
Of the 17 films, seven are Indian and 10 are South Asian/Diaspora films. The Indian films are Theja Rio’s “Angh,” Richie Mehta’s “Phoolan,” Karthik Subbaraj’s “Dorothy”, the late John Abraham’s “Amma Ariyan” (Report to Mother), Samjad’s “Half,” Shaunak Sen’s “Termite” and Rahul Roye’s “Aman.” Theja Rio’s “Angh,” in the Platform Competition, got a warm reception at its world premiere. This is an astounding achievement for an Indigenous filmmaker from Nagaland in India’s underdeveloped North East. This year onwards, the Platform winner will be eligible for the Academy Award/Oscar for Best International Feature, so fingers crossed. The film’s Polish cinematographer Adam Pietkiewicz already won the TIFF Variety Artisan Award for Best Cinematographer: the feature is also shot on 16mm.
Richie Mehta’s superb “Phoolan” (Special Presentations), produced by Namah Pictures (Shareen Mantri Kedia et al) and Amazon MGM Studios, is a compelling film on Phoolan Devi, focussing on a 48-hour siege when a young Phoolan, a Dalit outlaw, is trapped by 2,000 armed guards sent to kill her. Mehta is the brilliant director of “Amal” and the series “Delhi Crime” and “Poacher.”
Karthik Subbaraj’s “Dorothy” (Centrepiece, Tamil), toplined by Sanath, Rishikanth and Keerthy Suresh, flamboyantly combines mainstream genre elements—action, romance, song and dance—with a passionate plea against violence, patriarchy and toxic masculinity, with a big twist.
There are two Malayalam films at TIFF: Samjad’s “Half” (Midnight Madness), with twin vampires out for revenge—imagine a Malayalam vampire film! The other is the late John Abraham’s “Amma Ariyan” (1986)in TIFF Classics, superbly restored by Film Heritage Foundation. There are also two outstanding shorts in Short Cuts--Shaunak Sen’s “Termite” and Rahul Roye’s “Aman.”
“Termite,” by the Oscar-nominated Sen (“All That Breathes”), is loaded with metaphors. It explores the lives of two bachelors in old Delhi, when one of them falls in love: could love be a termite of the heart? “Aman” is an explosively good film exploring what happens when a transman, on the eve of his gender-affirming surgery, discovers that he is pregnant.
The South Asian/Diaspora films outside India are Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog” (Nepal, Centrepiece; Winner, Jury Prize, Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, now Nepal’s official Oscar entry); Rubaiyat Hossain’s “The Difficult Bride” (Bangladesh, Centrepiece; Winner, Independent Film Critics Award at Venice Film Festival); Jennifer Peedom’s Tenzing (US-Australia, Gala Presentation, with Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe, Tibetan/Nepali/Indian actors Genden Phuntsok, Thinley Lhamo, and Tenzin Dalha, and CoProducer Pravesh Sahni). Ian Bawa’s “Strong Son” is a Canadian feature in Discovery.
Additionally, there are five Diaspora shorts: Zarrar Kahn’s “The Lion Does Not Concern Himself” (Canadian-Pakistani), Kalainithan Kalaichelvan’s “Till the Milk Runs Dry” (Canadian-Sri Lankan Tamil), Elham Ehsas’s wonderful “Forgotten Spaceman” (Afghanistan, UK); Varun Raman and Tom Hancock’s “Into the Betaverse” (UK, Strange Cuts) and “Butter Chicken To Go” by Prajjwal Rajawat is in Redefined Short Film Showcase.
Meenakshi Shedde is a National Award-winning film critic and film curator to festivals worldwide, based in Mumbai.
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