Two Indian films are now eyeing the 99th Academy Awards. Gondhal, a Marathi thriller rooted in a traditional ritual, is India’s official International Feature entry, while Angh, set in 1963 Nagaland, gained Oscar eligibility by winning TIFF’s Platform Prize. Their journeys mirror India’s 95th Oscars run, when multiple projects secured nominations and historic wins across categories.
Within three days, two Indian films reached the starting line of the same Oscar race. On Friday, September 18, the Film Federation of India named Gondhal, a Marathi thriller, as the country's official entry for the International Feature Film category. On Sunday, September 20, Theja Rio's Angh won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, making it a contender in the Oscars race (although, eligibility isn't the same as nomination). Both are aimed at the 99th Academy Awards, scheduled for March 14, 2027.
Gondhal, India's official entry into the 2027 Oscars, takes its name from the traditional Maharashtrian ritual of the same name. We follow Suman (Ishita Deshmukh), a woman trapped in a marriage to the wealthy Anand (Yogesh Sohoni) despite being in love with Sahebrao, a Gondhali performer (Anuj Prabhu).
As the night of the Gondhal unfolds, Suman manipulates Sarjerao, Anand’s obsessive cousin, into using the commotion around the festival for committing a murder she cannot bring herself to carry out.
Meanwhile, Angh is set in Nagaland in 1963. Director Theja Rio follows Anghba, an ageing Konyak village chief that has been slowly giving up its way of life with the arrival of an American missionary. This is exacerbated by the event of his wife Anghya's sickness, and Anghba refuses the missionary's help at aware that accepting his medicine, food and other forms of assistance could also mean opening the door to the faith and culture he is trying to preserve.
One by one, his decisions make him increasingly unpopular, even with his own son, and Anghba can only watch as his culture slips away into nothingness in the name of assimilation.
Each country sends only one film to the Academy for the Best International Feature Film category. This year, the Film Federation of India's jury weighed more than 30 films, among them Dhurandhar: The Revenge, Hanuman Ansh and Ikkis, before choosing Gondhal, the first Marathi selection since Court in 2015.
Beyond this category, non-English-language films that win a top prize at one of six festivals: the Golden Bear in Berlin, Busan's Best Film award, Cannes' Palme d'Or, Sundance's World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Toronto's Platform Prize and Venice's Golden Lion. The only other requirement for the films is that it must begin a theatrical release between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026.
This is exactly what happened at the 95th Academy Awards in 2023. To remind you of how it was, four Indian projects made Academy shortlists: Chhello Show, the official International Feature entry, along with All That Breathes, The Elephant Whisperers and the RRR song Naatu Naatu (these were all in different categories). Three were nominated and two won, with Naatu Naatu taking Best Original Song and The Elephant Whisperers taking Best Documentary Short, while All That Breathes lost the documentary feature prize to Navalny.
Right now, both Gondhal and Angh have the same route in the Awards season race. Academy members opt in vote for up to 15 films ibn each category, and those 15 form the shortlist. A second round, limited to members who have seen every shortlisted film, produces the five final nominees, due on January 21.
Sure, a success like the '23 awards only comes once in a lifetime. But if luck favours, we could have two movies at the Oscar nominations this year.