Boong just picked up its latest trophy, and this one comes with a bonus for its youngest cast member.

The Manipuri film, produced by Excel Entertainment alongside Chalkboard Entertainment and Suitable Pictures, won Best Feature Film at the South Asian Film, Literary and Cultural Festival in Washington DC. Gugun Kipgen, the boy at the centre of the story, walked away with the Best Young Talent honour at the same ceremony.

Excel Entertainment announced the double win on social media, tagging director Lakshmipriya Devi, Kipgen and co-star Bala Hijam Ningthoujam along with the rest of the team. "Boong celebrates a double win at the @dcsaaci for Best Feature Film and Best Young Talent," the studio's post read, thanking the cast and the production houses behind the film.

The story follows Boong, a young boy trying to piece his family back together after his father goes missing. He sets off with his best friend to track the man down, leaning on his single mother Mandakini, played by Ningthoujam, through it all. It's a small film with a specific setting, but that specificity seems to be exactly what's carrying it across festival circuits worldwide.

And it has covered a lot of ground already. Boong premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before travelling to Warsaw, São Paulo, Adelaide and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Bollywood Hungama has previously reported that the film became the first Indian film to win a BAFTA, a claim credited to the film's team and one that's worth treating with the usual caution reserved for superlatives in awards season press releases.

On the commercial side, the makers say Boong's theatrical re-release pushed its box office past Rs. 1 crore, which they're calling the highest total ever for a Manipuri film. That number, too, comes from the production side rather than independent tracking, but even a modest re-release crossing a crore for a regional-language film with this kind of budget profile is not nothing.

What the Washington DC win adds isn't really about the money, though. It's another data point for a film that keeps getting picked up at festivals built for exactly this kind of story, one rooted in a region and a language that Indian cinema rarely bothers to centre. Devi has spoken before about how every nomination functions as a push for a smaller film to stay visible, and this one lands right on cue.

Boong isn't done yet. With awards season still unfolding and the film's festival run showing no signs of slowing, the next stop for Kipgen and Devi's team is anyone's guess, but it's a safe bet there's another shortlist waiting somewhere.