Highlights from the 71st National Film Awards: Celebrating Excellence in Indian Cinema

Celebrating the Best in Film

The 71st National Film Awards, honoring outstanding films and documentaries from 2023, were announced today in Delhi. Notable winners included Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail, Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story, and Ramkumar Balakrishnan’s Parking. The awards were determined by a jury led by Ashutosh Gowariker.

12th Fail received the award for Best Feature Film across all languages, with its lead actor, Vikrant Massey, also taking home the Best Actor award, which he shared with Shah Rukh Khan for his role in Atlee’s Jawan.

Sudipto Sen was recognized as Best Director for The Kerala Story, which also earned accolades for cinematography, awarded to Prasantanu Mohapatra.

The Tamil film Parking was honored with the Best Screenplay award, sharing this recognition with Sai Rajesh Neelam for the Telugu film Baby. Additionally, Parking was named the Best Tamil Film.

Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani won in the category of Best Feature Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, while Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur was awarded Best Film Promoting National and Social Values. The film's make-up designer, Shrikant Desai, along with costume designers Sachin Lovalekar, Divvya, and Nidhiii Gambhir, also received awards.

Rani Mukerji was awarded Best Actress for her performance in Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway. The Best Supporting Actress award was shared by Urvashi for Ullozhukku and Janki Bodiwala for Vash. The best films in Malayalam and Gujarati were Ullozhukku and Vash, respectively.

The Best Supporting Actor award was jointly awarded to MS Bhaskar for Parking and Vijayaraghavan for Pookkaalam. The Best Child Artist award was given to Sukriti Veni Bandreddi for Gandhi Tatha Chettu, Kabir Khandare for Gypsy, and Treesha Thosar for Naal 2.

Additional Award Winners:

Best Editing: Midhun Murali for Pookkaalam (Malayalam).

Best Sound Design: Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan Muralidharan for Animal (Hindi).

Best Production Design: Mohandas for 2018 (Malayalam).

Best Action Direction: Nandu and Prudhvi for Hanu-Man (Telugu).

Best Music Direction for Songs: GV Prakash Kumar for Vaathi (Tamil).

Best Music Direction for Background Scores: Harshavardhan Rameshwar for Animal (Hindi).

Best Lyrics: Kasarla Shyam for Balagam (Telugu).

Best Male Playback Singer: PVNS Rohit for Premisthunna from Baby (Telugu).

Best Female Playback Singer: Shilpa Rao for Chhaliya from Jawan (Hindi).

Best Choreography: Vaibhavi Merchant for Dhindhora Baje from Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani (Hindi).

Best Debut Film: Ashish Bende’s Aatmapamphlet (Marathi).

Best Assamese Film: Adityam Saikia’s Rongatapu 1982.

Best Bengali Film: Arjun Dutta’s Deep Fridge.

Best Hindi Film: Yashowardhan Mishra’s Kathal.

Best Kannada Film: K Yashoda Prakash’s Kandeelu – The Ray of Hope.

Best Marathi Film: Sujay Dahake’s Shyamchi Aai.

Best Odia Film: Subhransu’s Pushkara.

Best Punjabi Film: Vijay Kumar Arora’s Godday Godday Chaa.

Best Tai Phake Film: Prabal Khaund’s Pai Tang… Step of Hope.

Best Garo Film: Dominic Sangma’s Rapture.

Best Telugu Film: Anil Ravipudi’s Bhagavanth Kesari.

Non-Feature Categories

Best Non-Fiction Film: Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar’s Flowering Man.

Best Debut Film of a Director: Shilpika Bordoloi’s Mau: The Spirit Dreams of Cheraw.

Best Biographical/Historical Reconstruction Film: Mo Bou Mo Gaan, Lentina Ao.

Best Art/Culture Film: Timeless Tamil Nadu.

Best Documentary Film: Rishiraj Agarwal’s God Vulture and Human.

Best Non-Feature Film Promoting Social and Environmental Values: Akshat Gupta’s The Silent Epidemic.

Best Short Film: Manish Saini’s Giddh The Scavenger.

Best Direction: Piyush Thakur’s The First Film.

Best Cinematography: Meenakshi Soman and Saravanamaruthu Soundarapandi for Little Wings.

Best Sound Design: Shubarun Sengupta for Dhundhgiri Ke Phool.

Best Editing: Niladri Roy for Moving Focus.

Best Music Direction: Pranil Desai for The First Film.

Best Voiceover: Hari Krishnan S for The Sacred Jack – Exploring The Tree of Wishes.

Best Script: Chidananda S Naik for Sunflowers Were The First Ones To Know.

Special mentions include Nekal – Chronicle of the Paddy Man and The Sea and the Seven Villages.

Best Film Critic: Utpal Datta.