The 8th 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 1960. Ceremony took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 31 March 1961 and awards were given by then Vice-President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
Starting with 8th National Film Awards, new category of awards for Educational Films was introduced. This category includes Prime Minister's gold medal and Certificate of Merit for second and third best educational film.
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 the 8th National Film Awards, a Hindi film Anuradha won the President's gold medal for the All India Best Feature Film. Following were the awards given:
All India Award
Following were the awards given in each category:
AwardFilmLanguageAwardee(s)Cash prizePresident's gold medal for the All India Best Feature FilmAnuradhaHindiProducer: Hrishikesh MukherjeeGold Medal and 20,000Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee5,000All India Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature FilmKshudhita PashanBengaliProducer: Hemen GangulyCertificate of Merit and 10,000Director: Tapan Sinha2,500All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature FilmDeivapiraviTamilProducer: Kamal Brothers Pvt LtdCertificate of Merit onlyDirector: R. KrishnanDirector: S. PanjuPrime Minister's gold medal for the Best Children's FilmPhool Aur KaliyanHindiProducer: Rajkamal KalamandirGold Medal and 20,000Director: Ram Gabale5,000All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Children's FilmIdd MubarakHindiProducer: Children's Film SocietyCertificate of Merit and 10,000Director: Khwaja Ahmad Abbas2,500All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Children's FilmDelhi Ki KahaniHindiProducer: Children's Film SocietyCertificate of Merit onlyDirector: Rajendra Kumar
Regional Award
The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. With 8th National Film Awards, new award category was introduced for the feature films made in Gujarati and Odia language. These newly introduced categories includes President's silver medal for Best Feature Film and Certificate of Merit for second and third best film in both the languages, although former was not given for Gujarati language as no film was found suitable for the award. Along with Gujarati, President's silver medal for Best Feature Film was also not given in Kannada language, instead Certificate of Merit was awarded. No awards were given in Assamese and Malayalam language as no film was found to be suitable.
AwardFilmAwardee(s) Producer DirectorFeature Films in BengaliPresident's silver medal for Best Feature FilmDeviSatyajit RaySatyajit RayCertificate of MeritGangaCine Art Production Pvt Ltd.Rajen TarafdarFeature Films in GujaratiCertificate of MeritMendi Rang LagyoBipin GajjarManhar RaskapurFeature Films in HindiPresident's silver medal for Best Feature FilmMughal-e-AzamK. AsifK. AsifCertificate of MeritJis Desh Men Ganga Behti HaiRanbir Raj KapoorRadhu KarmakarKanoonB. R. ChopraB. R. ChopraFeature Films in KannadaCertificate of MeritBhakta KanakadasaD. R. NaiduY. R. SwamiFeature Films in MarathiPresident's silver medal for Best Feature FilmKanyadaanSurel ChitraMadhav ShindeCertificate of MeritUmaj Padel TarNarayan Baburao KamatDinkar D. PatilFeature Films in OdiaPresident's silver medal for Best Feature FilmSri LokenathRupa Raga Pvt Ltd.Prafulla Kumar SenguptaFeature Films in TamilPresident's silver medal for Best Feature FilmParthiban KanavuJubilee Films Pvt Ltd.D. YoganandCertificate of MeritPaathai Theriyuthu PaarKumari Films Pvt Ltd.Nemai GhoshKalathur KannammaAVM ProductionsA. BhimsinghFeature Films in TeluguPresident's silver medal for Best Feature FilmMahakavi KalidasuSarani ProductionsK. Kameshwara RaoCertificate of MeritSri Seetha Rama KalyanamN. A. T. Pvt Ltd.N. Trivikrama Rao
Non-Feature films
Non-feature film awards were given for the documentaries and educational films made in the country. Following were the awards given:
Documentaries
AwardFilmLanguageAwardee(s)Cash prizePresident's gold medal for the Best Documentary FilmKangra and KuluEnglishProducer: Films DivisionGold Medal and 4,000Director: N. S. Thapu1,000All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Documentary FilmSaga of ServiceEnglishProducer: Films DivisionCertificate of Merit and 2,000Director: Dilip Jamdar500All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Documentary FilmThe WeaversEnglishDirector: F. R. BilimoriaCertificate of Merit onlyProducer: Films Division
Educational films
AwardFilmLanguageAwardee(s)Cash prizePrime Minister's gold medal for the Best Educational FilmPond CultureEnglishProducer: Films DivisionGold Medal and 4,000Director: N. K. Issar1,000All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Educational FilmCottonEnglishProducer: Films DivisionCertificate of Merit onlyDirector: Krishna KapilAll India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Educational FilmWheatEnglishProducer: Films DivisionCertificate of Merit onlyDirector: Krishna Kapil
Awards not given
Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award:
President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Assamese President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Kannada President's silver medal for Best Feature Film in Malayalam
References
External links National Film Awards Archives Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India