7th National Film Awards

7th National Film Awards
Awarded for	Best of Indian cinema in 1959
Awarded by	Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Presented by	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Vice President of India)
Presented on	1 May 1960 (1960-05-01)
Site	Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi
Official website	dff.nic.in
Best Feature Film	Apur Sansar
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The 7th National Film Awards , then known as State Awards for Films, presented by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1959. ^{[1] [2]} Ceremony took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 1 May 1960 and awards were given by then Vice-President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Awards

Awards were divided into feature films and non-feature films.

President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film is now better known as National Film Award for Best Feature Film, whereas President's Gold Medal for the Best Documentary Film is analogous to today's National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film. For children's films, Prime Minister's Gold Medal is now given as National Film Award for Best Children's Film. At the regional level, President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film is now given as National Film Award for Best Feature Film in a particular language. Certificate of Merit in all the categories is discontinued over the years.

Feature films

Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For the 7th National Film Awards, a Bengali film Apur Sansar won the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film. Following were the awards given: ^{[1] [2]}

All India Award

For 7th National Film awards, none of the films were awarded from Documentary and Children's Films category as no film was found to be suitable, instead only Certificate of Merit was given. Following were the awards given in each category: ^{[1] [2]}

Award	Film	Language	Awardee(s)	Cash Prize
President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film	Apur Sansar	Bengali	Producer: Satyajit Ray Pvt Ltd.	Gold Medal and ₹20,000
			Director: Satyajit Ray	₹5,000
All India Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature Film	Heera Moti	Hindi	Producer: Pravin Desai	Certificate of Merit and ₹10,000
			Director: Krishnan Chopra	₹2,500
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film	Sujata	Hindi	Producer: Bimal Roy	Certificate of Merit only
			Director: Bimal Roy
All India Certificate of Merit for Best Children's Film	Banyan Deer	English	Producer: Films Division	Certificate of Merit only
			Director: Ahmed Lateef
			Director: Shanti Verma
			Director: G. G. Saraiya

Regional Award

The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. For 7th National Film Awards, President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film was not given in Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam language; instead Certificate of Merit was awarded in each particular language. ^{[1] [2]}

Award	Film	Awardee(s)
		Producer	Director
Feature Films in Assamese
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Puberun	K. C. Roy	Prabhat Mukherjee
		Paji Doss
Feature Films in Bengali
Certificate of Merit	Bicharak	Arundhati Mukherjee	Prabhat Mukherjee
Feature Films in Hindi
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Anari	Lachman B. Lulla	Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Feature Films in Kannada
Certificate of Merit	Jagat jyothi Basaweswara	G. S. S. Murthy	T. V. Singh Thakore
Feature Films in Malayalam
Certificate of Merit	Chathurangam	Capt. (Dr.) G. T. Joshua	J. D. Thottan
			D. V. Swamy
Feature Films in Tamil
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Bhaaga Pirivinai	G. N. Velumani	A. Bhimsingh
Certificate of Merit	Veerapandiya Kattabomman	B. R. Panthalu	B. R. Panthalu
	Kalyana Parisu	Sarvashri S. Krishnamurthy	C. V. Sridhar
		T. Govindarajan
		C. V. Sridhar
Feature Films in Telugu
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Nammina Bantu	Sambhu Films	Adurthi Subba Rao
Certificate of Merit	Maa Inti Mahalakshmi	Navashakthi Films Pvt Ltd.	Gutha Ramineedu
	Jayabheri	Vasireddy Narayana Rao	P. Pullaiah

Non-Feature films

Non-feature film awards were given for the documentaries made in the country. Following were the awards given: ^{[1] [2]}

Documentaries

Award	Film	Language	Awardee(s)	Cash Prize
All India Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary Film	Kathakali	English	Producer: Films Division	Certificate of Merit and ₹2,000
			Director: Mohan Wadhwani	₹500
	Mayurakshi Dam	Hindi	Producer: Films Division	Certificate of Merit only
			Director: N. K. Issar

Awards not given

Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award: ^{[1] [2]}

• President's Gold Medal for the Best Documentary Film
• Prime Minister's Gold Medal for the Best Children's Film
• President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Bengali
• President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Kannada
• President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Malayalam
• President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Marathi

References

1. "7th National Film Awards". International Film Festival of India. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
2. "7th National Film Awards (PDF)" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals . Retrieved 4 September 2011.

External links

• National Film Awards Archives
• Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India