Indian movie "Boong" wins BAFTA award for Best Children's & Family Film by Lakshmipriya Devi

Manipuri film Boong wins Bafta award for Best Children's & Family film. The film is directed by Lakshmipriya Devi and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. It beat Disney's Zootopia 2 to win the 79th Bafta awards.

India wins its first BAFTA award with Boong

At the 79th BAFTA awards, India shone and bagged the first award ever with the Manipuri film Boong, in the Best Children's & Family Film category. It was one of the most important categories in the award ceremony.

The irony, however, is stark: hardly anyone has seen the film in Manipur, let alone the internally displaced children the director so poignantly mentioned in her BAFTA acceptance speech. Kumam Davidson writes.
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Boong was nominated along with Arco, Lilo & Stitch, and Zootopia 2, surpassing all of them. The movie won the hearts of the panel and won the award. Boong is a heartfelt children’s coming-of-age drama that follows young Boong (played by Gokul Athokpam) as he navigates life in conflict-affected Manipur and embarks on an emotional journey to reunite with his missing father, with his mother (played by Bala Hijam) forming the emotional core of the story.

Several critics have priased Boong as a heartfelt and moving film. "Boong is a rich coming-of-age tale that touches on important issues without ever losing its playful tone or big heart.” Taylor Gates from Collider said.

Lakshmipriya Devi said,“This feels like climbing a mountain we didn’t even know we were climbing. I come from Manipur, a land that has been going through deep pain and unrest. This award is not just for us, it belongs to the people of Manipur and especially to the children whose stories inspired this film. We pray that peace returns to our land. We pray that every internally displaced child finds their home again, their joy again, their innocence again. No conflict should ever be stronger than forgiveness. Forgiveness is the greatest superpower we as humans possess. Thank you to BAFTA for giving us not just this honour, but a platform to speak about hope, about healing, and about the resilience of children. This is for Manipur. This is for our stories. Thank you.”

The win is a breakthrough for regional films that go unnoticed in the race with big-budget commercial films that have been earning well but earning no international recognition because they do not have content value.

Filmmaker Lakshmipriya Devi created history at BAFTA 2026 with her film Boong. The Manipuri-language coming-of-age drama won BAFTA for Best Children's & Family Film, making Devi the first Indian filmmaker from the Northeast to claim this honour. At the main ceremony, while… pic.twitter.com/Lw7uPlTW9d

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