National Film Award for Best Anthropological/Ethnographic Film

The National Film Award for Best Anthropological/Ethnographic Film 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. It was one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus).

National Film Award for Best Anthropological/Ethnographic Film
National award for contributions to Short films
Sponsored by	Directorate of Film Festivals
Reward(s)	Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) ₹50,000
First award	1984
Final award	2017
Most recent winner	• Name, Place, Animal, Thing  • Slave Genesis
Highlights
Total awarded	31
First winner	Bada Media

The award was instituted in 1984, at 32nd National Film Awards and awarded annually for films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. At the 70th National Film Awards, the award is discontinued and clubbed with National Film Award for Best Promotional Film, National Film Award for Best Scientific Film, National Film Award for Best Educational/Motivational/Instructional Film, National Film Award for Best Exploration/Adventure Film, National Film Award for Best Investigative Film, National Film Award for Best Agriculture Film, National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues and National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Environment/Conservation/Preservation Film, and two new categories were created; Best Documentary and Best Non Feature Film Promoting Social and Environmental Values.^[1]

Winners

Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus) and cash prize. 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) and director(s)
Year	Film(s)	Language(s)	Producer(s)	Director(s)	Refs.
1984 (32nd)	Bada Media	Hindi	–	Manohar S. Varpe	[2]
1985 (33rd)	The Whispering Wind	English	–	Biplab Roy Choudhury	[3]
1986 (34th)	The Land Where Wind Blows Free	English	Director of Cultural Affairs, Assam	Chandra Narayan Barua	[4]
1987 (35th)	Raaste Band Hain Sab	Hindi	Manjiri Dingwaney, Rural Labour Cell	Manjiri Dutta	[5]
1988 (36th)	Maa Ooru	Telugu	B. Ramachandra Rao	B. Narsing Rao	[6]
1989 (37th)	Baiga	Hindi	Madhya Pradesh Madhyam	Rajendra Janglay	[7]
1990 (38th)	Lolaab	English	Hillman Film Pvt. Ltd	Mohi-Ud-Din Mirza	[8]
1991 (39th)	The Valiant Ones	English	A. K. Balakrishnan	A. K. Balakrishnan	[9]
1992 (40th)	Wangala: A Garo Festival	English	Bappa Ray	Bappa Ray	[10]
1993 (41st)	Ladakh: Life Along the Indus	English	Bappa Ray	Bappa Ray	[11]
1994 (42nd)	The Trapped	English	K. Jayachandran	O. K. Johnny	[12]
1995 (43rd)	Yelhou Jagoi	Meitei	Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts	Aribam Syam Sharma	[13]
1996 (44th)	No Award				[14]
1997 (45th)	In the Land of Lepchas	English	Government of West Bengal	• Anjan Bose  • Manas Kamal Chowdhari	[15]
1998 (46th)	Kherwal Parab	Santali	Sankar Rakshit	Sankar Rakshit	[16]
1999 (47th)	Koihatir Dhulia	Assamese	Satyabrat Kalita	Hemanta Das	[17]
	Surabhi	Telugu	K. Jaydev	K. N. T. Sastry
2000 (48th)	Scribbles on Akka	Kannada	Flavia Agnes	Madhusree Dutta	[18]
2001 (49th)	The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh	English	Films Division	Aribam Syam Sharma	[19]
2002 (50th)	The Morung: Silent Witness of the Brave Wancho	English	Anthropological Survey of India	Bappa Ray	[20]
2003 (51st)	Aur Ghumantu Thhahar Gaye	Hindi	Leo Arts Communication	Meenakshi Vinay Rai	[21]
2004 (52nd)	The Legend of Fat Mama	English	Rafeeq Ellias	Rafeeq Ellias	[22]
2005 (53rd)	Spirit of the Graceful Lineage	English	Bibi Devi Barbarooah	Prerana Barbarooah	[23]
2006 (54th)	No Award				[24]
2007 (55th)	Tai Phakey	English	Priyam Chaliha	Mridul Gupta	[25]
2008 (56th)	Boliya Pitaier Sohoki Sootal	Assamese	• Altaf Mazid  • Zabeen Ahmed  • Susanta Roy	Altaf Mazid	[26]
2009 (57th)	No Award				[27]
2010 (58th)	Songs of Mashangva	• Tangkhul  • Meitei  • English	Oinam Doren	Oinam Doren	[28]
2011 (59th)	Bom	• Hindi  • English	Anirban Datta	Amlan Datta	[29]
2012 (60th)	Char... The No-Man's Island	Bengali	Sourav Sarangi	Sourav Sarangi	[30]
2013 (61st)	No Award				[31]
2014 (62nd)	Qissa–e–Parsi : The Parsi Story	English	Public Service Broadcasting Trust	• Divya Cowasji  • Shilpi Gulati	[32]
2015 (63rd)	Aoleang	English	Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies	Ranajit Ray	[33]
2016 (64th)	No Award				[34]
2017 (65th)	Name, Place, Animal, Thing		Nithin R.	Nithin R.
	Slave Genesis		Aneez K. M.	Aneez K. M.
2018 (66th)	No Award				[35]
2019 (67th)	No Award				[36]
2020 (68th)	No Award				[37]
2021 (69th)	No Award				[38]