Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox) wins Best Film; Boong leads with three honors
New York: The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) 2026 concluded its four-day run on Sunday with an awards ceremony, honoring the finest in Indian cinema across ten competitive categories. The festival, held from May 28 to 31 in New York City, brought together filmmakers, artists, and cinephiles celebrating the breadth and diversity of contemporary Indian filmmaking.
Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox) claimed the festival's top honor, winning Best Film, while the Manipuri film Boong emerged as the biggest winner of the evening with three awards — Best Debut Film (selected by the Film Critics Circle of India), Best Director for Lakshmipriya Devi, and Best Child Actor for Gugun Kipgen.
Nikhil Yadav was named Best Actor for his performance in Vimukt, while Meenakshi Jayan took home the Best Actress award for Victoria. The Best Screenplay honor went to Nikhil Mahajan and Prajakt Deshmukh for Tighee. In the non-fiction categories, Deja Vu won Best Documentary Feature and Waai claimed Best Documentary Short, while Jo's Turn won Best Narrative Short.
Complete list of winners
The New York Indian Film Festival is one of North America's premier showcases for Indian cinema, presenting feature films, documentaries and shorts that reflect the rich cultural and creative landscape of the Indian subcontinent. NYIFF 2026 featured films in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi and other Indian languages.
