National Film Award for Best Short Film

National Film Award for Best Short Film (upto 30 mins)
National award for contributions to non-feature films
Sponsored by	National Film Development Corporation of India
Formerly called	National Film Award for Best Short Fiction Film (1987–2021)
Reward(s)	Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) ₹2,00,000
First awarded	1987
Last awarded	2022
Most recent winner	Xunyota
Highlights
Total awarded	32
First winner	The Eight Column Affair

The National Film Award for Best Short Film (upto 30 mins) is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for non-feature films and awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus).

The award was instituted in 1987, at 35th National Film Awards and awarded annually for the short films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. Since the 70th National Film Awards, the name was changed to "Best Short Film (upto 30 mins)". ^[1]

Awards

Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus Award) and cash prize. Cash prize amount varied over the period. Following table illustrates the cash prize amount over the years:

Year (Period)	Cash Prize
1987–2005	Producer and Director: Rajat Kamal and ₹10,000 (US$120) Each
2006–2021	Producer and Director: Rajat Kamal and ₹50,000 (US$600) Each
2022–present	Producer and Director: Rajat Kamal and ₹2 lakh (US$2,400) Each

Winners

Following are the award winners over the years:

Indicates a joint award for that year

List of films, showing the year, language(s), producer(s), director(s) and citation
Year	Film(s)	Language(s)	Producer(s)	Director(s)	Citation	Refs.
1987 (35th)	The Eight Column Affair	English	FTII	Sriram Raghavan	For its innovative use of cinematic techniques to put together a surrealistic collage of visual that add up to a delightfully brisk narrative, full of whimsical humour.	[2]
1988 (36th)	The Story of Tiblu	Idu Mishmi	Santosh Sivan for Films Division	Santosh Sivan	For telling the story of a spirited young tribal girl who comes into her own in the alien environment of an urban school, while retaining the innocence and sensitivity bred of living close to nature; and for capturing the freshness and spontaneity of its tribal actors in real life locations with enduring simplicity.	[3]
1989 (37th)	Behula	Bengali	Raja Mitra	Raja Mitra	For a story well told.	[4]
1990 (38th)	Aamukh	Hindi	FTII	Rajkumar	For being a forceful statement of the personal rights of a woman through the emotional impact of one incident in which she rises against a social taboo.	[5]
1991 (39th)	Punaravritti	Hindi	FTII	Imo Singh	For delicating handling the loneliness and plight of an old woman who is forced to relive emotions because of her overprotective nature.	[6]
	Totanama	Hindi	Vikas Satwalekar	Chandita Mukherjee	For its traditional style, narrative structure and good production values.
1992 (40th)	Agar Aap Chahein	Hindi	Shahnaz Rahim for Films Division	Mazahir Rahim	For a moving story of a village community which has been saved from migration to a city by timely help from a bank for agricultural development.	[7]
1993 (41st)	Sunday	Hindi	National Center of Films for Children and Young People	Pankaj Advani	For taking a total holiday from logic and inhibitions and creating a most entertaining and humorous fantasy which, with all its improbabilities, will succeed in casting a spell on its audiences.	[8]
1994 (42nd)	Still Life	•Hindi  •English	FTII	Subhadro Chowdhary	For its stylistic sophistication in dealing with the chaos of painful experience.	[9]
1995 (43rd)	The Rebel	Hindi	John Shankarmangalam	Rajashree	For showing an adolescent's journey to maturity and his coming to terms with his mother.	[10]
1996 (44th)	Vidiyalai Nokki	Tamil	•F and T  •V. T. I. N. Chennai	P. Venkatesh	For making an eloquent statement on the gift of sight.	[11]
	Athmeeyam	Malayalam	FTII	Nandakumar Kavil	For presenting a traditional artist's inner rebellion against the denial of his creative identity.
1997 (45th)	Hypnothesis	Hindi	FTII	Rajat Kapoor	For a serious look, light heartedly presented, of the travesties of mass cinema.	[12]
1998 (46th)	Jee Karta Tha	Hindi	Mohan Agashe for Films Division	Hansa Thapliyal	For its brilliant originality in delineating a small town milieu and in evolving a new cinematic idiom.	[13]
1999 (47th)	Blind Folded	Tamil	A. Sriram	S. Sri Ram	For its creative controlled treatment of an emotional and socially relevant theme.	[14]
2000 (48th)	Bhor	Bengali	Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute	Ritubarna Chudgar	For its multi-layered treatment of a story that sketches the lives of two young people (sibling) caught in the web of their past and yet coping for survival.	[15]
2001 (49th)	Chaitra	Marathi	FTII	Kranti Kanade	For beautifully exploring human relations centred around an age-old ritual of Haldi and Kumkum.	[16]
2002 (50th)	Sunder Jibon	Bengali	Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute	Sandeep Chattopadhyay	For its sensitive and nuanced story about a writer and the sour taste of beauty. The film is notable for its technical excellence and the excellent synergy created by the young director Sandip Chattopadhyay and his colleagues from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Calcutta. This award applauds them all.	[17]
2003 (51st)	Sati Radhika	Assamese	Anjali Das	Anjali Das	For a popular tale relating to the great 14th century reformer Shankara Deva who stood against caste inequality. The tale narrates an allegory wherein Sati Radhika a fisherwoman perform a miraculous feat, which others could not, thus bringing out the noble concept of social equality.	[18]
2004 (52nd)	Cradle Song	•English  •Hindi	Tripurari Sharan for FTII	Nimisha Pandey	For exploring the mental agony of a couple, that has given birth to a crippled child in a very ethereal and stimulating cinematic style.	[19]
2005 (53rd)	Thackkayin Meedha Naangu Kangal	Tamil	• Doordarshan  •Ray Cinema	Vasanth	For its moving and realistic depiction of pride, deprivation and emotion in a small coastal village of Tamil Nadu.	[20]
2006 (54th)	Ek Aadesh: Command For Choti	Hindi	Children's Film Society	Ramesh Asher	For sensitively bringing out the moral dilemma created by existence at a subsistence level in a hostile environment.	[21]
2007 (55th)	Udedh Bun	Bhojpuri	FTII	Siddharth Sinha	For creatively portraying a young boy's dilemma as he comes face to face with the temptations of life. The film evocatively explores the erotic under‐currents in this coming of age tale.	[22]
2008 (56th)	Stations	•Hindi  •Marathi  •English	FTII	Emmanuel Palo	For weaving a complex contemporary form of expression, through fragmented stories of a few sparsely connected lives in transit, over an omnipresent dark urban reality of economic disparity, alienation, and bad faith.	[23]
2009 (57th)	Boond	Hindi	Kumar Mangat	Abhishek Pathak	For "Wars will be fought for water", a story of the future set in a village starved of water, food and love.	[24]
2010 (58th)	Kal 15 August Dukan Band Rahegi	Hindi	FTII	Prateek Vats	With energy and vigour, the documentary records very interesting images of a group of young students, who are trying to relate, with ideology of freedom and the stifling authoritarian reality. In the process, the life is entangled with intrigues and doubts.	[25]
2011 (59th)	Panchakki	Hindi	Sanjeev Rattan	Sanjeev Rattan	For creating a misty and magical world through simple and available cinematic tools. The film is an engrossing lyrical fantasy.	[26]
2012 (60th)	Kaatal	Marathi	FTII	Vikrant Pawar	Rigorously crafted, the film explores an evolving relationship between two young people with rare maturity and restraint. Even while dealing with the very nebulous and the almost ephemeral, the film is meticulous in its expressions.	[27]
2013 (61st)	Mandrake ! Mandrake !	Hindi	FTII	Ruchir Arun	For the deftly crafted story of a young man who transforms a rundown warehouse into an Aladdin's Cave through the fun and frolic of the moving image where magic, mystery and adventure become possible.	[28]
2014 (62nd)	Mitraa	Marathi	Athaansh Communications	Ravindra Jadhav	For its empathetic portrayal of its pivotal character’s sexual orientation, and the question of freedom around it. Shot in monochrome, the film adds to the antiquity for the era it is set in.	[29]
2015 (63rd)	Aushadh	Marathi	Amol Deshmukh	Amol Deshmukh	An untiring effort to stay humane.	[30]
2016 (64th)	Aaba	English	Raj Kumar Gupta	Amar Kaushik	Cinematic excellence comes to life in this intimate story where the filmmaker shows that silence can also be used as a powerful language of expression.	[31]
2017 (65th)	Mayat	Marathi	Suyash Shinde	Suyash Shinde	A layered film that presents morality and ethics as choices available to us even in our most desperate and needy moments.
2018 (66th)	Kharvas	Marathi	Aditya Suhas Jambhale	Aditya Suhas Jambhale
2019 (67th)	Custody	Hindi	Ambiecka Pandit	Ambiecka Pandit	'Custody' is a story that is set over a few hours, but has infinite ramifications. At a new year's eve celebration at home, a group of old friends spiral into a nerve wracking whodunit when the baby of the host chokes in a fire. Struggling to save their bond of years while the baby's life hangs in the balance, the film questions the subjective barometer of morality.

References

1. Under Secretary to the Government of India (14 December 2023). "Report on Rationalization of Awards Conferred by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting | Ministry of Information and Broadcasting | Government of India". Ministry of Information and Broadcasting . Retrieved 25 August 2024.
2. "35th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
3. "36th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
4. "37th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
5. "38th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
6. "39th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
7. "40th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
8. "41st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
9. "42nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
10. "43rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
11. "44th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
12. "45th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
13. "46th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
14. "47th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
15. "48th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
16. "49th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
17. "50th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
18. "51st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
19. "52nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
20. "53rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
21. "54th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
22. "55th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
23. "56th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
24. "57th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
25. "58th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
26. "59th National Film Awards for the Year 2011 Announced". Press Information Bureau (PIB), India. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
27. "60th National Film Awards Announced" (PDF) (Press release). Press Information Bureau (PIB), India. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
28. "61st National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. 16 April 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
29. "62nd National Film Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Directorate of Film Festivals. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
30. "63rd National Film Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Directorate of Film Festivals. 28 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
31. "64th National Film Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Directorate of Film Festivals. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2017.

External links

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