National Film Award – Special Jury Award (non-feature film)

For Special Mention for non-feature films, see National Film Award – Special Mention (non-feature film).

The National Film Award – Special Jury Award was one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India.

National Film Award – Special Jury Award
National award for contributions to short film Instituted in 1978
Sponsored by	Directorate of Film Festivals
Formerly called	Special Commendation (1978)
Reward(s)	Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) ₹1,00,000
First award	1984
Final award	2021
Most recent winner	Rekha
Highlights
Total awarded	39
First winner	Shri Hemkunt Saahib

It was one of several awards presented for non-feature films. The recipients of Special Jury Award were awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus), cash prize of ₹100,000 (US$1,200) and certificate of merit.

The award was instituted in 1978, at 26th National Film Awards and awarded annually for the short films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. The award was discontinued at the 70th National Film Awards.^[1]

Winners

This award considers all the aspects of film making than individual area. Following are the award winners over the years:

List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), awarded as, film(s) and language(s)
Year	Recipient(s)	Awarded as	Film(s)	Language(s)	Refs.
1978 (26th)	No Award				[2]
1979 (27th)	No Award
1980 (28th)	No Award				[3]
1981 (29th)	No Award				[4]
1982 (30th)	No Award				[5]
1983 (31st)	No Award				[6]
1984 (32nd)	–	–	Shri Hemkunt Saahib	–	[7]
1985 (33rd)	Rajan Khosa	Director	Bodhvriksha	Hindi	[8]
1986 (34th)	Yash Chaudhary	Director	Equal Partners	English	[9]
1987 (35th)	Rajiv Mehrotra	• Producer  • Director  • Cameraman	Barren Harvest	English	[10]
1988 (36th)	Mani Kaul	Director	Before My Eyes	–	[11]
1989 (37th)	K. R. Mohanan	Director	Kalamandalam Krishnankutty Poduval	Malayalam	[12]
1990 (38th)	Gulzar	Director	Ustad Amjad Ali Khan	Hindi	[13]
1991 (39th)	Aribam Syam Sharma	Director	Meitei Pung	English	[14]
1991 (39th)	B. Narsing Rao	Director	Akruti	–
1992 (40th)	Salam Karassery	Producer	Noottantinte Sakshi	Malayalam	[15]
	Sasibhushan	Director
1993 (41st)	Murali Nair	Director	Tragedy of an Indian Farmer	English	[16]
	Mahesh Thottathil	Director	Death of a Prodigal Son	• Hindi  • English
1994 (42nd)	Soumitra Sarkar	• Producer  • Director  • Screenwriter	Games We Played in My Youth	• English  • Bengali	[17]
1995 (43rd)	Sehjo Singh	Producer	Sona Maati	Marwari	[18]
1996 (44th)	Nilotpal Majumdar	• Producer  • Director  • Cinematographer	Dhatu Jhar '96	Bengali	[19]
1997 (45th)	No Award				[20]
1998 (46th)	Pavan Malhotra	Actor	Faqir	Hindi	[21]
1999 (47th)	Deep Prakash	Director	Of Confucius, S-Spots and Toyguns	• English  • Hindi  • Marathi  • Tamil	[22]
2000 (48th)	Roabin Mazumdar	Producer	A Memory of the Sea	English	[23]
	Lygia Mathews	Director
2001 (49th)	Kireet Khurana	Producer	Orchestra	Hindi	[24]
	Bhimsain	Director
2002 (50th)	Wrik Basu and team	Director	00:00	English	[25]
2003 (51st)	Kadhambari Chintamani	Producer	The Lijjat Sisterhood	English	[26]
	Ajit Oommen	Director
2003 (51st)	Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti	Director	Ek Aakash	–
2004 (52nd)	Amit Dutta	Director	Kshy Tra Ghya	Hindi	[27]
2005 (53rd)	Rakesh Sharma	Director	Final Solution	• Hindi  • Gujarati  • English	[28]
2006 (54th)	Anuradha Mookerjee	Producer	Lama Dances of Sikkim	English	[29]
	Manash Bhowmick	Director
2007 (55th)	Amalan Datta	Producer	Bhultir Khero	Bengali	[30]
	Anirban Datta	Director
	Public Service Broadcasting Trust	Producer	Poomaram	Malayalam
	Vipin Vijay	Director
2008 (56th)	Rajesh S. Jala	Director	Children of the Pyre	Hindi	[31]
2009 (57th)	Aasna Aslam	Child actor	Kelkkunnundo	Malayalam	[32]
2010 (58th)	No Award				[33]
2011 (59th)	Anand Patwardhan	Director	Jai Bhim Comrade	Marathi	[34]
2012 (60th)	Shumona Goel	Director	I Am Micro	English	[35]
	Shai Heredia
	Vasudha Joshi	Director	Cancer Katha	English
2013 (61st)	Girish Kasaravalli	Director	Ananthamurthy – Not A Biography...But A Hypothesis	English	[36]
	Satyanshu Singh	Director	Tamaash	English
	Devanshu Singh
2014 (62nd)	Films Division	Producer	A Poet, A City & A Footballer	English	[37]
	Joshy Joseph	Director
2015 (63rd)	No Award				[38]
2016 (64th)	Shirley Abraham	Producer and director	The Cinema Travellers	• Hindi  • Marathi	[39]
2017 (65th)	Films Division of India	Producer	A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
	Prateek Vats	Director
	FTII	Producer	Monday
	Arun K.	Director
2018 (66th)	Harish Shah	Director	Why Me ?
	Neeraj Singh	Art Director	Ekaant
2019 (67th)	Vipin Vijay	Director	Small Scale Societies	English	[40]
2020 (68th)	Ojaswee Sharma	Director	Admitted	• Hindi  • English	[41]
2021 (69th)	Shekhar Bapu Rankhambe		Rekha	Marathi	[42]