The National Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with the ''Golden Lotus'' (''Swarna Kamal''). The award is announced for films produced in a year across the country, in all Indian languages. , the award comprises a ''Swarna Kamal'', a certificate, and a cash prize of 2,50,000 and is presented to the producer and the director of the film. The National Film Awards were established in 1954 to "encourage production of the films of a high aesthetic and technical standard and educational and culture value" and also planned to include awards for regional films. The awards were instituted as "State Awards for Films" but were renamed to "National Film Awards" at the

15th National Film Awards The 15th National Film Awards, presented by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in 1967. Ceremony took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 25 November 1968 and awards were given by ...

in 1967. , the award is one of six ''Swarna Kamal'' awards presented for the feature films. The award winning film is included at the annual

International Film Festival of India The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually, currently in the state of Goa, on the western coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common p ...

. Only the films made in any Indian language and silent films which are either shot on 35 mm, in a wider gauge, or digital format but released on a film or Video/Digital format and certified by the

Central Board of Film Certification The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...

as a feature film or featurette are made eligible for the award. The inaugural award was named as "President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film" and was awarded to Marathi film, ''

Shyamchi Aai Shyamchi Aai ( mr, श्यामची आई; en, Shyam's Mother) is an autobiography of social activist Pandurang Sadashiv Sane (known as ''Sane Guruji''). Its regarded as one of the greatest tributes to mother's love in Marathi literature. S ...

'' (''Shyam's Mother''), produced and directed by Pralhad Keshav Atre and is based on Pandurang Sadashiv Sane's Marathi novel of the same name. , sixty seven feature films have been awarded which are made in twelve different languages:

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

(twenty-two),

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

(fourteen),

Malayalam 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 wa ...

(twelve),

Kannada 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 s ...

(six), Marathi (five),

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

(three), Assamese, English,

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

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

(two each),

Beary The Beary (also known as Byari) is a community concentrated along the southwest coast of India, mostly in the Mangalore district of the south Indian state of Karnataka. They are an ethnic group of Indian Muslims with their own distinct cu ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

(one each). At the 26th National Film Awards (1978), no feature film was awarded with the Best Feature film award as the jury headed by filmmaker Chetan Anand scrutinised eighty films but did not consider any film to be "worthy of merit" and "measured up to the standard of excellence set forth by the jury". At the

59th National Film Awards The 59th National Film Awards, presented by the Directorate of Film Festivals, honoured the best of Indian cinema for 2011 and took place on 3 May 2012 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Awards were presented in 38 categories in the Feature Films ...

, two feature films shared the award; Marathi film '' Deool'' (''Temple'') and Beary film '' Byari''. Most recently, the award is presented to Tamil film '' Soorarai Pottru'', directed by Sudha Kongara.

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of ...

is the most honoured director where six of his films'' Pather Panchali'' (1955), ''

Apur Sansar ''Apur Sansar'' ( bn, অপুর সংসার), also known as ''The World of Apu'', is a 1959 Indian Bengali-language drama film produced, written and directed by Satyajit Ray. It is based on the second half of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay' ...

'' (1959), '' Charulata'' (1964), '' Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne'' (1968), '' Seemabaddha'' (1971), and '' Agantuk'' (1991)won the award, followed Buddhadeb Dasgupta (five), Girish Kasaravalli and

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen (''Beng.'' মৃণাল সেন; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was an Indian film director, and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Ind ...

(four each),

Shaji N. Karun Shaji Neelakantan Karun (born 1 January 1952) is an Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film ''Piravi'' (1988) won the Caméra d'Or – Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He was the premiere chairman of the Kerala ...

(three), and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Tapan Sinha,

G. V. Iyer Ganapathi Venkataramana Iyer (3 September 1917 – 21 December 2003) was a well-known Indian film director and actor. He was nicknamed "Kannada Bheeshma", and was the only person who made films in Sanskrit. His film '' Adi Shankaracharya'' (19 ...

and

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam and Hindi films, while also having done six films in Tamil and two films in Telugu. He has done about 31 films in H ...

(two each). As of 2022, the award was presented to the films of Eleven debutant directors;

('' Pather Panchali'', 1955), Adoor Gopalakrishnan ('' Swayamvaram'', 1972), M. T. Vasudevan Nair ('' Nirmalyam'', 1973), Girish Kasaravalli (''

Ghatashraddha ''Ghatashraaddha'' () is a 1977 Indian Kannada language film directed by Girish Kasaravalli starring Meena Kuttappa, Narayana Bhat and Ajith Kumar in lead roles. It is based on a novella by eminent Kannada writer U. R. Ananthamurthy. The film wa ...

'', 1977), charan ('' Piravi'', 1988),

Sandeep Sawant Sandeep Sawant is an Indian theatre, film and television personality. He is the director and script writer of the national award winning Marathi movie Shwaas. Sawant was one of the producers of Shwaas, his debut film. Author Sandeep Unnithan cred ...

(''

Shwaas ''Shwas'' (Marathi: श्वास, ''The Breath'') is a Marathi film, released in 2004. It was India's official entry to the 2004 Oscars and was ranked 6th in the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film category. Its storyline is based ...

'', 2003),

Salim Ahamed Salem Ahamed is an Indian film director, screen writer and producer. After working for a long time as a travel consultant, he joined as a creative director and script writer in a television channel. His directorial debut, '' Adaminte Makan Abu' ...

(''

Adaminte Makan Abu ''Adaminte Makan Abu'' () is a 2011 Indian Malayalam-language social drama film written, directed and co-produced by Salim Ahamed. It stars Salim Kumar and Zarina Wahab, with Mukesh, Kalabhavan Mani, Suraj Venjarammoodu, and Nedumudi Venu in ...

'', 2010),

Suveeran K. P. Suveeran is a film and drama director from Kozhikode. His first movie ''Byari'' won the National Film Award for Best Film in 2011. This is the first feature film to be made in the Beary language. Biography Suveeran is a native of Azhiyur ...

('' Byari'', 2011), Anand Gandhi (''

Ship of Theseus The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object that has had all of its original components replaced remains the same object. According to legend, Theseus, the mythical Greek founder-king of Athens, had rescued the children o ...

'', 2013), Chaitanya Tamhane (''

Court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

'', 2015), Abhishek Shah (

Hellaro ''Hellaro'' () is a 2019 Indian Gujarati period drama film co-written and directed by Abhishek Shah and produced by Ashish Patel, Nirav Patel, Aayush Patel, Prateek Gupta, Mit Jani and Abhishek Shah under the banner of Saarthi Productions and H ...

2018). Five films awarded with the Best Feature film award were also the Indian submission for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

; ''

'' (1959), ''

'' (2004), ''

'' (2011), ''

'' (2015) and '' Village Rockstars'' (2018) . '' Adi Shankaracharya'' (1983), the first film made in

language, and '' Byari'' (2011), the first film made in

Beary language Beary or Byari (ಬ್ಯಾರಿ ಬಾಸೆ ''Byāri Bāse'') is a Dravidian language spoken by the Muslim communities mainly of Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts) and extreme northern end of Kerala like Manjeshwaram, Kunjath ...

, won the award at the 31st National Film Awards and

, respectively.

Awards

Since its inception in 1953, the producer of the film is awarded with the gold medal and a certificate. A cash prize of 20,000 was introduced at the

5th National Film Awards The 5th National Film Awards, formerly the State Awards for Films, were a set of awards presented by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to recognize the best Indian films of 1957. The ceremony took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New ...

(1957) and was revised to 40,000 at the

18th National Film Awards The 18th National Film Awards were held in Chennai, India in November 1971 by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for Indian films released in 1970. The awards were presented by then President of India, V. V. Giri. Juries T ...

(1970), to 50,000 at the 28th National Film Awards (1980), to 2,50,000 at the

54th National Film Awards The 54th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2006. Three different commit ...

(2006). From 1953 till 1956, the director of the film was awarded with the Gold medal which was later changed in 1957 to a cash prize of 5,000. From 1967 till 1973, a plaque was also awarded to the director and cash prize was revised to 10,000 in 1970. At the 22nd National Film Awards (1974), the award for the director was changed to ''Rajat Kamal'' (''Silver Lotus'') and a cash prize of 15,000 which was later revised to 20,000 at the

25th National Film Awards The 25th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1977. Ceremony took place on ...

(1977). Since 28th National Film Awards (1980), the director is awarded with the ''Swarna Kamal'' and a cash prize of 25,000 which was later revised to 50,000 at the 28th National Film Awards (1980), to 2,50,000 at the 54th National Film Awards (2006). In 1973 and 1974, the lead actor and actress of the film were also awarded.

P. J. Antony P. J. Antony (1 January 1925 – 14 March 1979) was an Indian stage and film actor. He received the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' Nirmalyam'' in 1974. He was also the first actor working in Malayalam cinema to rece ...

and

Sumithra Sumitra ( sa, सुमित्रा, IAST: Sumitrā) is a princess of Kashi in Hindu mythology. The wise Sumitra is the third queen consort of Dasharatha, the king of Kosala, who ruled from Ayodhya. She is the mother of the twins Lakshmana a ...

received a souvenir for Malayalam film '' Nirmalyam'' at the

21st National Film Awards The 21st National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1973. Ceremony took place in Oct ...

(1973). Antony was also awarded the

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to the ...

, then known as the "Bharat Award for the Best Actor". Utpal Dutt and Gita Sen were awarded with a medallion for Bengali Film ''

Chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

'' at 22nd National Film Awards (1974).

Winners

Films in the following languages have won the Best Feature Film award:

Explanatory notes

References

External links

* of Directorate of Film Festivals, India {{DEFAULTSORT:National Film Award For Best Film

Film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

Awards for best film