Polish cinematographer Adam Pietkiewicz to accept TIFF artisan award for Angh
Polish cinematographer Adam Pietkiewicz will attend the Toronto International Film Festival to accept the Variety TIFF Artisan Award for his work on Angh, Variety reported on 13 September 2026. The prize celebrates craft behind the camera, and Pietkiewicz earned it for a remote shoot captured entirely on film.
Angh is directed by Theja Rio. It follows a small Konyak Naga family in the 1960s who are the last residents of an otherwise abandoned village in Nagaland, India, near the Burma border. Their hold on traditional life is challenged by the arrival of a Christian missionary from the United States.
The film will have its world premiere at Toronto in competition, screening in the Platform programme, Variety reported in August. The slot is also a personal first. It marks Pietkiewicz's debut at the festival as a cinematographer, the person in charge of camera and lighting.
Angh is only his second feature film. Pietkiewicz shot it on 16mm film, a smaller celluloid gauge that records a visible grain, using Arri cameras paired with Ultra Prime lenses. He worked with two Kodak stocks, VISION3 250D for daylight and VISION3 500T for tungsten and night work.
The Polish director of photography previously worked on Netflix's Baby Reindeer, according to The Telegraph India. For Angh he faced very different limits. Nagaland did not have reliable electricity, which made night exteriors hard to light.
Tests showed firelight alone did not give enough exposure on the light meter. Pietkiewicz and the crew therefore built separate fire torches topped with a special flammable liquid to lift light on faces. The fix kept the look of flame while giving the film stock enough to record.
The climax went further. The scene in which the village burns down was shot entirely in camera, with no visual effects or computer imagery. Anghlong Konyak, who plays the village chief, acted inside that real blaze.
Planning was tight. Pietkiewicz and Rio created a detailed guide they called the 'Book of Angh' that mapped every scene before shooting. That preparation helped on a location with little power and no second chances with fire.
Pietkiewicz is named among Toronto's final 2026 Tribute Award recipients, TIFF announced. The list also includes Helen Mirren, Seth Rogen, Fan Bingbing and Bassam Tariq. The artisan honour is supported by Variety.
What makes this stand out is the discipline. Film stock cannot be endlessly brightened afterwards, so exposure must be right on the night. On Angh, that meant extra torches, careful metering and a burning village captured for real.
