The 26th
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...
, presented by
Directorate of Film Festivals
The Directorate of Film Festivals in India was an organisation that initiated and presented the International Film Festival of India, the National Film Awards and the Indian Panorama. Although the Directorate helped appoint members of the jury ...
, the organisation set up by
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of
Indian Cinema
The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on p ...
released in the year 1978.
Ceremony took place in April 1979.
Juries
Two different committees were formed for feature films and short films, headed by
Chetan Anand and Kironmoy Raha respectively.
* Jury Members: Feature Films
**
Chetan Anand (
Chairperson
The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a Board of directors, board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by ...
)
Sanjukta PanigrahiArvind Kumar
Manohar Shyam JoshiHameeduddin Mehmood
** Vinay Chandra Maudglaya
Bhisham Sahni Jamuna Vimla Patil Satish Alekar S. L. BhyrappaNaa Parthasarthy
**
Nirad N. MohapatraG. L. Bhardwaj
Basu Bhattacharya
Basu Bhattacharya (1934 – 19 June 1997) was an Indian film director of Bollywood, Hindi films. He is perhaps best known for his 1966 film ''Teesri Kasam'', starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman (based on the short story "Maare Gaye Gulfam ...
K. K. Nair
* Jury Members: Short Films
** Kironmoy Raha (
Chairperson
The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a Board of directors, board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by ...
)
Aruna VasudevM. T. Vasudevan Nair
Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Narayanan Nair (15 July 1933 – 25 December 2024) was an Indian author, lecturer, Screenwriter, screenplay writer and film director. He was a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and was o ...
Awards
Awards were divided into feature films and non-feature films.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Feature films
Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 26th National Film Awards, no film was awarded the
President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film. It is the only year for National Film Awards not to give away this award till now. A
Hindi film ''
Gaman'', a
Bengali film ''
Parashuram'' and a
Malayalam film
Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both the mainstream film industry ...
''
Thampu'' won the maximum number of awards (three). Following were the awards given in each category:
All India Award
Following were the awards given:
Regional Award
The awards were given to the best films made in the
regional languages of India. For feature films in
Bengali,
English,
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
,
Kashmiri,
Meitei and
Punjabi, award for Best Feature Film was not given.
Non-Feature films
Following were the awards given:
Short films
Awards not given
Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award:
*
Best Feature Film
*
Second Best Feature Film
*
Best Story
*
Best Film on Family Welfare
*
Best Lyrics
*
Best Film on Social Documentation
*
Best Experimental Film
*
Best Animation Film
*
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Assamese
*
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in English
*
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Manipuri
*
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Marathi
*
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Oriya
*
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Punjabi
*
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Tamil
References
External links
National Film Awards ArchivesOfficial Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India
{{National Film Awards
National Film Awards (India) ceremonies
1979 Indian film awards