First Indian Film to Win Best Children’s & Family Film

What occurs when a small-town story from Manipur reaches the world’s largest cinema stage?

In a second that quietly rewrote historical past, the Manipuri movie Boong received the 2026 BAFTA Award for Best Children’s and Family Film — turning into the primary Indian movie to say the honour in this category.

But this victory is about way over a trophy. It is a few youngster’s voice from Manipur being heard the world over.

A childhood framed by borders, buoyed by hope

Directed by debut filmmaker Lakshmipriya Devi, Boong centres on a younger schoolboy rising up in a area marked by ethnic tensions and uncertainty. When circumstances pull his household aside, his best want turns into heartbreakingly easy: to deliver them again collectively for his mom.

As he navigates schoolyard prejudices, whispers of unrest, and the emotional weight of separation, the movie unfolds by his quiet dedication. There are not any grand heroic gestures — solely small acts of braveness: writing letters, holding onto reminiscences, and refusing to let bitterness substitute love.

Set along the Manipur border, the story gently however powerfully touches upon problems with id, displacement and belonging. Yet, at its core, Boong stays a kids’s movie within the truest sense — one which safeguards innocence even when the world round it feels fractured.

Lakshmipriya Devi has described the BAFTA second as “the last few steps to reach a summit of a mountain we never knew we were climbing.” 

For her, the movie is an homage to her homeland — and a prayer for displaced kids in Manipur, together with the younger actors who lived this story on display screen. It carries a easy however pressing hope: that no battle ought to ever be robust sufficient to extinguish a baby’s desires.

From a regional story to a worldwide applause

The journey of Boong started on the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024, the place it premiered to important appreciation. It went on to journey throughout worldwide festivals and was later named the Spotlight Film on the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, the place lead actor Gugun Kipgen additionally earned a Best Actor (Special Mention).

Beyond its BAFTA triumph, the movie picked up the Excellence in Feature Filmmaking award on the International South Asian Film Festival and was honoured as Best Youth Film on the seventeenth Asia Pacific Screen Awards — steadily constructing international acclaim with each screening.

At the BAFTAs in London, the movie stood shoulder-to-shoulder with international studio productions like Zootopia 2 and Lilo & Stitch. It was the one Indian entry within the class — and in the end, the one which took dwelling the award.

Produced by Excel Entertainment, led by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, the film marks a defining milestone for Northeast Indian cinema on the worldwide stage.

Boong didn’t dilute its roots to be understood internationally. It remained deeply native — in language, panorama and lived expertise. And in doing so, it turned common.

In celebrating Boong, the world has not simply applauded a movie — it has embraced a narrative of braveness, compassion and childhood hope, proving that when authenticity leads the way in which, even probably the most distant voices can mild up the world’s largest stage.

Sources:

‘Indian movie ‘Boong’ bags BAFTA award for Best Children’s & Family Film’, by The Hindu, Published on 23 February 2026.

‘All You Need To Know About BAFTA-Winner Boong – Cast, Plot And Farhan Akhtar Association’, by NDTV Movies, Published on 23 February 2026.