National Film Award for Best Feature Film

Since its inception in 1953, the producer of the film is awarded with the gold medal and a certificate. In 1973 and 1974, the lead actor and actress of the film were also awarded. P. J. Antony and Sumithra received a souvenir for Malayalam film Nirmalyam at the 21st National Film Awards (1973). Antony was also awarded the Best Actor, then known as the "Bharat Award for the Best Actor". Utpal Dutt and Gita Sen were awarded with a medallion for Bengali Film Chorus at 22nd National Film Awards (1974). == Winners ==

As of 2023 edition, 71 feature films have been awarded: Bengali (22); Malayalam (13);Hindi (12); Kannada and Marathi (each 6); Tamil (4); Assamese, Gujarati and Sanskrit (each 2); Beary and Telugu (each 1). At the 26th National Film Awards (1978), no feature film was awarded with the Best Feature film award as the jury headed by filmmaker Chetan Anand scrutinised eighty films but did not consider any film to be "worthy of merit" and "measured up to the standard of excellence set forth by the jury". Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Swayamvaram, 1972), M. T. Vasudevan Nair (Nirmalyam, 1973), Girish Kasaravalli (Ghatashraddha, 1977), Shaji N Karun (Piravi, 1988), Sandeep Sawant (Shwaas, 2003), Salim Ahamed (Adaminte Makan Abu, 2010), Suveeran (Byari, 2011), Anand Gandhi (Ship of Theseus, 2013), Chaitanya Tamhane (Court, 2015), Abhishek Shah ( Hellaro 2018). Five films awarded with the Best Feature film award were also the Indian submission for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film; Apur Sansar (1959), Shwaas (2004), Adaminte Makan Abu (2011), Court (2015) and Village Rockstars (2018) . Adi Shankaracharya (1983), the first film made in Sanskrit language, and Byari (2011), the first film made in Beary language, won the award at the 31st National Film Awards and 59th National Film Awards, respectively. List of winners Films in the following languages have won the Best Feature Film award: == Notes ==