The 8th National Film Awards, then known as State Awards for Films, presented by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of

Indian Cinema The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, ...

released in 1960. Ceremony took place at

Vigyan Bhavan Vigyan Bhawan ("science building") is a premier conference centre of the Government of India in New Delhi. Built in 1956, over the years it has been the venue of conferences of national and international stature, seminars and award ceremonies a ...

, New Delhi on 31 March 1961 and awards were given by then

Vice-President of India The vice president of India (IAST: ) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India. The office of vice president is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the ...

, Dr.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975), natively Radhakrishnayya, was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He served as the 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967. He also 1st Vice President of India from 1952 ...

. Starting with 8th National Film Awards, new category of awards for Educational Films was introduced. This category includes Prime Minister's gold medal and Certificate of Merit for second and third best educational film.

Awards

Awards were divided into feature films and non-feature films. President's gold medal for the All India Best Feature Film is now better known as

National Film Award for Best Feature Film The National Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one of se ...

, whereas President's gold medal for the Best Documentary Film is analogous to today's

National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film The National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awar ...

. For children's films, Prime Minister's gold medal is now given as

National Film Award for Best Children's Film The National Film Award for Best Children's Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards ...

. At the regional level, President's silver medal for Best Feature Film is now given as National Film Award for Best Feature Film in a particular language. Certificate of Merit in all the categories is discontinued over the years.

Feature films

Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For the 8th National Film Awards, a Hindi film '' Anuradha'' won the President's gold medal for the All India Best Feature Film. Following were the awards given:

All India Award

Following were the awards given in each category:

Regional Award

The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. With 8th National Film Awards, new award category was introduced for the feature films made in

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

and

Odia language Odia (, ISO: , ; formerly rendered Oriya ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the official language in Odisha (formerly rendered Orissa), where native speakers make up 82% of the population, and it is also ...

. These newly introduced categories includes President's silver medal for Best Feature Film and Certificate of Merit for second and third best film in both the languages, although former was not given for Gujarati language as no film was found suitable for the award. Along with Gujarati, President's silver medal for Best Feature Film was also not given in

Kannada language Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native sp ...

, instead Certificate of Merit was awarded. No awards were given in Assamese and

Malayalam language Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

as no film was found to be suitable.

Non-Feature films

Non-feature film awards were given for the documentaries and educational films made in the country. Following were the awards given:

Documentaries

Educational films

Awards not given

Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award: * President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Assamese * President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Kannada * President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Malayalam

References

External links

8th National Film Awards

National Film Awards Archives

Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India
{{National Film Awards National Film Awards (India) ceremonies 1961 film awards 1961 in Indian cinema