Oscars 2027: Nagaland's Angh gives India a second contender alongside Gondhal

For years, India's Oscar hopes in the international film category rested on a single film, chosen by a single committee. That changed on Sunday night in Toronto.

Angh, a debut feature from Naga filmmaker Theja Rio, won the top prize in the Platform section at the Toronto International Film Festival. Under revised Academy rules, that win alone puts it in contention for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards, to be held in Los Angeles on March 14, 2027. It now shares the field with Gondhal, the Marathi thriller by Santosh Davakhar that the Film Federation of India named as the country's official submission last week.

The rule that opened the door

In May, the Academy revised its eligibility criteria. From this cycle, a non-US film no longer has to be its country's official pick to qualify. It can also get in by winning a top jury prize at one of a handful of major festivals: Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto or Venice.

Angh is the first Indian film to test that route. It was the only Indian title to premiere in Platform, TIFF's competitive section for director-led cinema, and it beat eleven other films to the prize.

What is Angh?

The film is set in Nagaland in the 1960s. It began years ago as a short and grew into a feature, and it is the first full-length film from Rio, whose shorts have already won awards and screened abroad.

Why this matters

Last year Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound was India's official entry and reached the shortlist but missed a nomination. The same year, Sandhya Suri's Santosh, an India-UK-Germany-France co-production, competed for Britain instead, because it was submitted by the UK and never released in Indian cinemas.

Indian work has done well in other Oscar categories, where producers can apply directly. The Elephant Whisperers and Period. End of Sentence won in the short documentary category, and "Naatu Naatu" from RRR won Best Original Song. International Feature has been the exception, with one entry and no other way in.

What next

Gondhal and Angh will now spend the coming months on the awards circuit, competing for the same slot on the final nominations list. For the first time in this category, India is not putting all its hopes on one film.