National Film Award For Best First Non-Feature Film - Winners

The director has presented a sensitive and heartwarming portrait of a remarkable woman who was the first lady of the Indian screen and a versatile stage actress.

The director has given us a powerful insight into the labyrinth of the human mind faced with a disaster situation.

For presenting a delicate and sensitive portrayal of the culture, traditions and milieu of Old Delhi as a personalised experience.

For a restrained performances that its camera elicits.

For a sensitive portrayal of Shri Sarat Chandra Sinha, simple upright man of principles with uncompromising integrity and human qualities both in his personal and public life.

For its imaginative use of sound and visuals to capture the undercurrents of human response to outer tensions.

For its total and absorbing cinematic presentation of a unique and little-known percussion instrument.

For exploring new forms of cinematic expression and images.

For its objective and well-researched point of view on the lives of tribes in the Wayanad region; it captures their fragile existence cause in the process of change.

For its innovative approach in narrating a story of adolescent human experiences, treated in a stylised manner.

For the innovative approach in narrating the pathos of a housewife who is waiting for her husband to return from war.

For displaying a mature control of film form and weaves a taught, powerful and short narrative fiction to tell the story of a sculptor as the unanswered questions of his life unfold.

For its balanced exploration through an informative documentary on the ancient occult science and practice of the controversial Mantravada.

For depicting the plight of a physically incapacitated Sarasu and her cheerful will to live. The director achieves this bringing out the totality, spiritual richness of a "life lived only in the mind" – through an innovative narrative idiom.

For handling the simple and delicate relationship between ordinary human beings in a very profound evocative and enterprising manner, within a commercialised compulsive atmosphere.

For an evocative film capturing the essence of call centres in urban India, its pressures and the dualities of life in this new reality.

For displaying command over the medium that goes far beyond the level expected from a first film.

For its conventional handling of a renowned literary text. The element of surprise is presented in an effortless manner, spontaneous and full of miraculous madness.

For a sensitive portrayal of the latent violence building up in a child against the ritualistic social norms which are forced on him. The filmmaker demonstrates maturity and dexterity in handling the script and the actors, bringing out the complexity of a child’s mind trapped in a world of adults.

For sensitive handling of a thought provoking film that reflects the strength of nonviolence and Gandhian values – so relevant even today.

For a promising debut showing imagination and flair to weave a tale of fantasy.

For a delightful exposition of the poignant life of a poverty-stricken child, who nurtures a dream of embracing the source of learning through education, with simplicity and fluency. The director portrays the spirit of adventure of the child, through fine performances.

For depicting in his very first film in a simple yet poignant cinematic language the struggle and dilemma faced by ordinary citizens in North east India through the evocative poetry of Irom Sharmila the icon of non-violent resistance.