Angh, Nagaland film, wins at Toronto International Film Festival, qualifies for Oscars; La Bola Negra bags top prize | Hindustan Times

Indian film Angh has won the coveted Platform Prize at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. The film, directed by Theja Rio, is set and rooted in Nagaland, and was lauded by the festival jury for its ‘deeply resonant portrait of a world’. Courtesy of its win, Angh has also now directly qualified for the Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.Angh wins at TIFF, qualifies for OscarsOn Sunday evening, the festival's organisers announced the prize winners, including Angh. The jury's statement for Angh read: “The Platform Prize goes to Angh. For its refreshing perspective, strength of filmmaking, and deeply resonant portrait of a world. We praise the filmmaker’s vision, audacity and courage.”Starting this year, TIFF’s Platform Prize is one of only six international festival awards with a direct pathway to the Oscars. This means that Angh will be vying with other national entries, including India's Gondhal, for a nomination in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2027 Oscars. All about AnghAngh captures the haunting and intimate story of a father and son, the latter increasingly seduced by the comforts of the mission. Simultaneously, the film observes the process of conversion that reframes the local culture as primitive.Made by Naga filmmaker Theja Rio and adapted from his own award-winning 2021 short film, the film captures a culture rarely depicted on screen. The film, set in the 1960s, is almost entirely in Konyak.Other winners at TIFF 2026La Bola Negra, the Spanish queer epic about the intertwined lives of three gay men, won the People's Choice Award, the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF's People's Choice Award is the only major festival top prize voted on by viewers and not a jury. Over the years, it's become known as one of the most iron-clad Academy Awards predictors.La Bola Negra is directed by the duo known as Los Javis — Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. It was already a hit at the Cannes Film Festival. Netflix acquired the film out of Cannes and has launched a full awards campaign for the film, giving it its longest theatrical release yet. La Bola Negra opens in theatres on 16 October and begins streaming on 2 December.The first runner-up for the TIFF award was I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly's comedy about the making of Sylvester Stallone's iconic Rocky. Second runner-up was Being Heumann, Siân Heder's drama about disability rights pioneer Judy Heumann. The festival also awards a People's Choice Award for international films. That went to Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson, the Scottish actor who performed Hamlet in London while suffering from AIDS.Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been, a portrait of the 85-year-old vocalist, won TIFF's People's Choice Award for documentary. The festival's audience award for its Midnight Madness section went to Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, a so-called “gonzo documentary” by Matthew Rankin about the former Canadian prime minister.(With inputs from AP)