The National Film Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India, 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 3,00,000 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 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. 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 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 (Shyam's Mother), produced and directed by Pralhad Keshav Atre and is based on Pandurang Sadashiv Sane's Marathi novel of the same name.
History 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 (1957) and was revised to 40,000 at the 18th National Film Awards (1970), to 50,000 at the 28th National Film Awards (1980), to 2,50,000 at the 54th National Film Awards (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 (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), 2,50,000 at the 54th National Film Awards (2006), and 3,00,000 at the 70th National Film Awards (2022).
In 1973 and 1974, the lead actor and actress of the film were also awarded. P. J. Antony and Sumithra received a souvenir for Malayalam film Nirmalyam at the 21st National Film Awards (1973). Antony was also awarded the Best Actor, then known as the "Bharat Award for the Best Actor". Utpal Dutt and Gita Sen were awarded with a medallion for Bengali Film Chorus at 22nd National Film Awards (1974).
Winners As of the 2024 edition, 72 feature films have been awarded: Bengali (22); Malayalam (13); Hindi (14); Kannada and Marathi (each 6); Tamil (3); Assamese, Gujarati and Sanskrit (each 2); Beary and Telugu (each 1). 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, two feature films shared the award; Marathi film Deool (Temple) and Beary film Byari. Most recently, the award is presented to the film Article 370, directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale.
Satyajit Ray is the most honoured director where six of his films (1955), Apur Sansar (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 (four each), Shaji N. Karun (three), and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Tapan Sinha, G. V. Iyer and Priyadarshan (two each).
As of 2026, the award was presented to the films of fourteen debutant directors; Satyajit Ray (, 1955), Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Swayamvaram, 1972), M. T. Vasudevan Nair (Nirmalyam, 1973), Girish Kasaravalli (Ghatashraddha, 1977), Shaji N Karun (Piravi, 1988), Sandeep Sawant (Shwaas, 2003), Salim Ahamed (Adaminte Makan Abu, 2010), Suveeran (Byari, 2011), Anand Gandhi (Ship of Theseus, 2013), Chaitanya Tamhane (Court, 2015), Abhishek Shah (Hellaro, 2018) R. Madhavan (Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, 2021), Anand Ekarshi (Aattam, 2022) and Aditya Suhas Jambhale (Article 370, 2024).
Five films awarded with the Best Feature film award were also the Indian submission for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film; Apur Sansar (1959), Shwaas (2004), Adaminte Makan Abu (2011), Court (2015) and Village Rockstars (2018) . Adi Shankaracharya (1983), the first film made in Sanskrit language, and Byari (2011), the first film made in Beary language, won the award at the 31st National Film Awards and 59th National Film Awards, respectively.
List of winners Films in the following languages have won the Best Feature Film award:
Indicates a joint award for that year
+ List of films, showing the year (award ceremony), language(s), producer(s) and director(s) Year Film(s) Language(s) Producer(s) Director(s) 1953 Shyamchi Aai Marathi Pralhad Keshav Atre Pralhad Keshav Atre 1954 Mirza Ghalib Hindi Sohrab Modi Sohrab Modi 1955 Pather Panchali Bengali Government of West Bengal Satyajit Ray 1956 Kabuliwala Bengali Charuchitra Tapan Sinha 1957 Do Aankhen Barah Haath Hindi V. Shantaram V. Shantaram 1958 Sagar Sangamey Bengali De Luxe Film Distributors Debaki Bose 1959 Apur Sansar Bengali Satyajit Ray Productions Satyajit Ray 1960 Anuradha HindiHrishikesh Mukherjee and L. B. Thakur Hrishikesh Mukherjee 1961 Bhagini Nivedita Bengali Aurora Film Corporation Bijoy Bose 1962 Dada Thakur Bengali Shyamlal Jalan Sudhir Mukherjee 1963 Shehar Aur Sapna Hindi Naya Sansar Khwaja Ahmad Abbas 1964 Charulata Bengali R. D. Bansal Satyajit Ray 1965 Chemmeen Malayalam Babu Ismail Settu Ramu Kariat 1966 Teesri Kasam Hindi Shailendra Basu Bhattacharya 1967 Hatey Bazarey Bengali Asim Dutta Tapan Sinha 1968 Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne Bengali Nepal Dutta and Asim Dutta Satyajit Ray 1969 Bhuvan Shome Hindi Mrinal Sen Productions Mrinal Sen 1970 Samskara Kannada Tikkavarapu Pattabhirama Reddy Tikkavarapu Pattabhirama Reddy 1971 Seemabaddha BengaliBharat Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana Satyajit Ray 1972 Swayamvaram Malayalam Adoor Gopalakrishnan Adoor Gopalakrishnan 1973 Nirmalyam Malayalam M. T. Vasudevan Nair M. T. Vasudevan Nair 1974 Chorus Bengali Mrinal Sen Productions Mrinal Sen 1975 Chomana Dudi Kannada Praja Films B. V. Karanth 1976 Mrigayaa Hindi Uday Bhaskar International Mrinal Sen 1977 Ghatashraddha Kannada Sadanand Suvarna Girish Kasaravalli 1978 No Award 1979 Shodh Hindi Sitakant Misra Biplab Roy Chowdhury 1980 Akaler Shandhaney Bengali D. K. Films Mrinal Sen 1981 Dakhal Bengali Government of West Bengal Goutam Ghose 1982 Chokh Bengali Department of Information, Cultural Affairs India and the Government of West Bengal Utpalendu Chakrabarty 1983 Adi Shankaracharya Sanskrit NFDC G. V. Iyer 1984 Damul Hindi Prakash Jha Productions Prakash Jha 1985 Chidambaram Malayalam G. Aravindan G. Aravindan 1986 Tabarana Kathe Kannada Girish Kasaravalli Girish Kasaravalli 1987 Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai AssameseSailadhar Baruah and Jahnu Barua Jahnu Barua 1988 Piravi Malayalam Film Folks Shaji N. Karun 1989 Bagh Bahadur Bengali Buddhadeb Dasgupta Buddhadeb Dasgupta 1990 Marupakkam Tamil NFDC K. S. Sethumadhavan 1991 Agantuk Bengali NFDC Satyajit Ray 1992 Bhagavad Gita Sanskrit T. Subbarami Reddy G. V. Iyer 1993 Charachar Bengali Gita Gope and Shankar Gope Buddhadeb Dasgupta 1994 Unishe April Bengali Renu Roy Rituparno Ghosh 1995 Kathapurushan Malayalam Adoor Gopalakrishnan Adoor Gopalakrishnan 1996 Lal Darja Bengali Chitrani Lahiri and Dulal Roy Buddhadeb Dasgupta 1997 Thaayi Saheba Kannada Jayamala Girish Kasaravalli 1998 Samar HindiShyam Benegal, Sahyadri Films, and NFDC Shyam Benegal 1999 Vanaprastham Malayalam Mohanlal Shaji N. Karun 2000 Shantham Malayalam P. V. Gangadharan Jayaraj 2001 Dweepa Kannada Soundarya Girish Kasaravalli 2002 Mondo Meyer Upakhyan Bengali Arya Bhattacharya Buddhadeb Dasgupta 2003 Shwaas Marathi Arun Nalawade Sandeep Sawant 2004 Page 3 Hindi Bobby Pushkarna Madhur Bhandarkar 2005 Kaalpurush Bengali Jhamu Sughand Buddhadeb Dasgupta 2006 Pulijanmam Malayalam M. G. Vijay Priyanandanan 2007 Kanchivaram Tamil Percept Picture Company Priyadarshan 2008 Antaheen Bengali Screenplay Films Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury 2009 Kutty Srank Malayalam Reliance Big Pictures Shaji N. Karun 2010 Adaminte Makan Abu MalayalamSalim Ahamed and Ashraf Bedi Salim Ahamed 2011 Deool Marathi Abhijeet Gholap Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni Byari Beary Altaaf Hussain K. P. Suveeran 2012 Paan Singh Tomar Hindi UTV Software Communications Tigmanshu Dhulia 2013 Ship of Theseus EnglishRecyclewala Films Pvt. Ltd.Anand Gandhi 2014 Court Marathi Zoo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Chaitanya Tamhane 2015 Baahubali: The Beginning Telugu Shobu Yarlagadda and Arka Media Works S. S. Rajamouli 2016 Kaasav Marathi Sumitra Bhave, Sunil Sukthankar, and Mohan Agashe Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar 2017 Village Rockstars Assamese Rima Das Rima Das 2018 Hellaro Gujarati Saarthi Productions LLP Abhishek Shah 2019 Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea Malayalam Antony Perumbavoor Priyadarshan 2020 Soorarai Pottru Tamil 2D Entertainment Sudha Kongara 2021 Rocketry: The Nambi Effect Hindi Rocketry Entertainment LLP R. Madhavan 2022 Aattam Malayalam Joy Movie Productions Anand Ekarshi 2023 12th Fail Hindi Vinod Chopra Films Vidhu Vinod Chopra 2024 Article 370 Hindi B62 Studios and Jio Studios Aditya Suhas Jambhale
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