44th National Film Awards

The 44th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1996. The awards were announced on 6 May 1997, and presented in July.

Awards
Awards were divided into feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema.

Lifetime Achievement Award
Introduced in 1969, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is the highest award given to recognise the contributions of film personalities towards the development of Indian cinema and for distinguished contributions to the medium, its growth and promotion.

Feature films
Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 44th National Film Awards, a Bengali film, Lal Darja won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film, whereas a Tamil film, Minsara Kanavu won the maximum number of awards (4). Following were the awards given in each category:

Juries
A committee headed by T. Subbarami Reddy was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * T. Subbarami Reddy (Chairperson) • Basu Chatterjee • Charuhasan • Madhu • Mike Pandey • Nirad N. Mohapatra • Vijaya Mulay
 * Raghav Menon • Sushma Shiromani • Jwngdao Bodosa • M. S. Sathyu • G. Venkateswaran • D. Ramanaidu • Swaraj Lamba • Swapan Kumar Ghosh

All India Award
Following were the awards given:

Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Silver Lotus Award
Official Name: Rajat Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Regional Awards
The award is given to best film in the regional languages in India.

Non-Feature Films
Short Films made in any Indian language and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification as a documentary/newsreel/fiction are eligible for non-feature film section.

Juries
A committee headed by N. S. Thapa was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * N. S. Thapa (Chairperson) • Swapna Sundari • Meera Dewan • Sukumaran • Punathil Kunjabdulla

Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

Silver Lotus Award
Official Name: Rajat Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)' and cash prize.

Best Writing on Cinema
The awards aim at encouraging study and appreciation of cinema as an art form and dissemination of information and critical appreciation of this art-form through publication of books, articles, reviews etc.

Juries
A committee headed by Khalid Mohamed was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema. Following were the jury members:


 * Jury Members
 * Khalid Mohamed (Chairperson) • Pritiman Sarkar • V. K. Madhavan Kutty

Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal

All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)' and cash prize.

Awards not given
Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award:


 * Best Film on Environment / Conservation / Preservation
 * Best Feature Film in Manipuri
 * Best Feature Film in Punjabi
 * Best Feature Film in English
 * Best Non-Feature Film Direction
 * Best Anthropological / Ethnographic Film
 * Best Promotional Film
 * Best Scientific Film
 * Best Environment / Conservation / Preservation Film
 * Best Agricultural Film
 * Best Historical Reconstruction / Compilation Film
 * Best Exploration / Adventure Film
 * Best Music Direction