12th National Film Awards

The 12th 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 1964.^[2] Ceremony took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 31 May 1965 and awards were given by then Governor of Maharashtra, P. V. Cherian.^[1]

12th National Film Awards
Awarded for	Best of Indian cinema in 1964
Awarded by	Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Presented by	P. V. Cherian (Governor of Maharashtra)[1]
Presented on	31 May 1965 (1965-05-31)[1]
Site	Mumbai
Official website	dff.nic.in
Highlights
Best Feature Film	Charulata
Most awards	Aarohi (2)
← 11th National Film Awards 13th →

Starting with 12th National Film Awards, a new award was introduced at All India level for Best Story Writer. Also awards for films made in English and Kashmiri language are also considered for the President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in the respective language at the regional level.

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 12th National Film Awards, a Bengali film Charulata won the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film. Following were the awards given:^[2]

All India Award

For 12th National Film Awards, none of the films were awarded from Children's Films category as no film was found to be suitable. Following were the awards given in each category:^[2]

Award	Film	Language	Awardee(s)	Cash Prize
President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film	Charulata	Bengali	Producer: R. D. Bansal	Gold Medal and ₹ 20,000
			Director: Satyajit Ray	₹ 5,000
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film	Haqeeqat	Hindi	Producer: Chetan Anand	Certificate of Merit and ₹ 10,000
			Director: Chetan Anand	₹ 2,500
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film	Unnaipol Oruvan[3][4]	Tamil	Producer: Aasiya Jyothi films	Certificate only
			Director: D. Jayakanthan	Certificate only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Best Story Writer	Aarohi[3][4]	Bengali	Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay	Certificate only

Regional Award

The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. With 12th National Film Awards, two more awards were introduced for the feature films made in English and Kashmiri language. These newly introduced categories includes President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film and Certificate of Merit for second and third best film, although former was not given as no film was found suitable for the award.^[2]

Award	Film	Awardee(s)
		Producer	Director
Feature Films in Assamese
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Pratidhwani	Kamrup Chitra	Bhupen Hazarika
Feature Films in Bengali
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Aarohi	Asim Pal	Tapan Sinha
Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film	Anustup Chhanda	B. K. Productions	Pijush Bose
Feature Films in English
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	The Avalanche	Serbjeet Singh	Serbjeet Singh
Feature Films in Hindi
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Dosti	Tarachand Barjatya	Satyen Bose
Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film	Yaadein	Sunil Dutt	Sunil Dutt
Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film	Geet Gaya Patharon Ne	V. Shantaram Productions	V. Shantaram
Feature Films in Kannada
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Chandavalliya Thota	Pals & Co.	T. V. Singh Thakur
Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film	Nava Jeevana	U. S. Vadhiraj	P. S. Moorthy
		U. Jawahar
		Bharathi Chitra
Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film	Mane Aliya	A. Subba Rao	S. K. A. Chari
Feature Films in Kashmiri
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Mainz-Raat	M. R. Seth	Shyam and Jagiram Paul
Feature Films in Marathi
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Pathlaag	Raja Paranjape	Raja Paranjape
Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film	Tuka Jhalase Kalas	N. G. Datar	Raja Nene
Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film	Sawaal Majha Aika!	Anant Govind Mane	Anant Govind Mane
Feature Films in Oriya
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Sadhana	Diamond Valley Production	Prabhat Mukherjee
Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film	Naba Janma	Pancha Sakha Pictures	Sachin Mukherji
Feature Films in Punjabi
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Jagga	K. B. Chadha	Jugal Kishore
Feature Films in Telugu
President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film	Doctor Chakravarthy[5]	D. Madhusudhana Rao	Adurthi Subba Rao
Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film	Ramadasu[6]	V. Nagayya	V. Nagayya

Non-Feature films

Non-feature film awards were given for the documentaries, educational films and film strips made in the country. For 12th National Film Awards, no award was given in the filmstrip category and only Certificate of Merit was awarded for Educational Films. Following were the awards given for the non-feature films category:^[2]

Documentaries

Award	Film	Language	Awardee(s)	Cash Prize
All India Certificate of Merit for the Best Documentary Film	One Day	English	Producer: Jagat Murari	Certificate of Merit and ₹ 1,000
			Director: S. N. S. Sastry	₹ 250
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Documentary Film	All Under Heaven By Force	English	Producer: J. B. H. Wadia	Certificate of Merit only
			Director: J. B. H. Wadia
	And Miles To Go		Producer: S. Sukhdev
			Director: S. Sukhdev

Educational films

Award	Film	Language	Awardee(s)	Cash Prize
All India Certificate of Merit for the Best Educational Film	Sterilisation of the Female	Hindi	Producer: Films Division Director: G. H. Saraiya	Certificate of Merit only

Awards not given

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

• Prime Minister's Gold Medal for the Best Children's Film
• Prime Minister's Gold Medal for the Best Educational Film