72nd National Film Awards: Winners, Venue and Key Facts

When and where

The President of India will present the 72nd National Film Awards on 22 September 2026 at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat, the town formerly called Kevadia. This edition recognises Indian cinema of 2024, and the heads of its three juries announced the winners on 18 July 2026. Ahead of the ceremony, PIB has published a backgrounder that sets out the winners alongside the history of the awards.

The choice of venue is part of the story. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which confers the awards every year, has decided to take the ceremony out of the National Capital, so that future editions are held in different States and cities. The ministry presents the Ekta Nagar ceremony as an expression of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat.

The principal winners

Firsts and language awards

For the first time, a Santhali film has been honoured in the Non-Feature Film section: Angen, directed by Ravi Raj Murmu, won Best Debut Film of a Director in that section. The awards also carry a separate Best Feature Film prize for every language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, while films in other languages are recognised through awards of their own. Under that provision, the Garhwali film Dholi and the Tulu film IMBU were honoured this year.

Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024 will go to Anant Nag, a veteran of Kannada cinema, as the Government of India announced on 16 September 2026. Born in Karnataka on 4 September 1948, he made his screen debut in the Kannada film Sankalp and his Hindi debut in Ankur. He has acted in more than 300 films across six Indian languages, appeared in the television series Malgudi Days, and was given the Padma Bhushan in 2025. The three recipients before him were Mohanlal (2023), Mithun Chakraborty (2022) and Waheeda Rehman (2021).

How the awards began

The idea goes back to the Film Enquiry Committee of 1949, which recommended State Awards for Films. Instituted in 1954, the awards opened with an edition for films made in 1953 and only seven honours: the Marathi film Shyamchi Aai took the President's Gold Medal for the Best All-India Feature Film, Mahabalipuram won the gold medal for documentary, and Do Bigha Zamin received a Certificate of Merit.

Awards for actors and technicians arrived with the films of 1967. In 1968 Uttam Kumar and Nargis became the first Best Actor and Best Actress, prizes then known as Bharat and Urvashi. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award followed in 1969, and Devika Rani was its first recipient. Running the awards passed to the Directorate of Film Festivals in 1973, and in 2022 the directorate was merged into NFDC, which implements them today.

Sections, medals and prize money

The awards have three sections, Feature Films, Non-Feature Films and Best Writing on Cinema, with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award standing apart as the lifetime honour. The two film sections award the Swarna Kamal and the Rajat Kamal, with cash prizes of Rs 3,00,000 and Rs 2,00,000, and the writing section carries Rs 1,00,000. For the 72nd edition, the Phalke award comes with a Swarna Kamal, a shawl and Rs 10,00,000.

How winners are chosen

A film can enter only if the CBFC certified it during the award year and it carries English subtitles, and a feature film must run for more than 72 minutes. Since the 57th edition, feature films have been judged in two tiers: five regional panels draw up a shortlist and a central panel picks the winners. For this edition, Jayaraj headed the Feature Film jury, Aseem Sinha the Non-Feature Film jury and A. Chandrasekhar the Best Writing on Cinema jury. The Phalke award takes no entries at all; a committee of eminent film personalities recommends the recipient.