8th National Film Awards


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:
AwardFilmLanguageAwardeeCash Prize
President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature FilmAnuradhaHindiProducer: Hrishikesh MukherjeeGold Medal and 20,000
President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature FilmAnuradhaHindiDirector: Hrishikesh Mukherjee5,000
All India Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature FilmKshudhita PashanBengaliProducer: Hemen GangulyCertificate of Merit and 10,000
All India Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature FilmKshudhita PashanBengaliDirector: Tapan Sinha2,500
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature FilmDeivapiraviTamilProducer: Kamal Brothers Pvt LtdCertificate of Merit only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature FilmDeivapiraviTamilDirector: R. KrishnanCertificate of Merit only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature FilmDeivapiraviTamilDirector: S. PanjuCertificate of Merit only
Prime Minister's Gold Medal for the Best Children's FilmPhool Aur KaliyanHindiProducer: Rajkamal KalamandirGold Medal and 20,000
Prime Minister's Gold Medal for the Best Children's FilmPhool Aur KaliyanHindiDirector: Ram Gabale5,000
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Children's FilmIdd MubarakHindiProducer: Children's Film SocietyCertificate of Merit and 10,000
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Children's FilmIdd MubarakHindiDirector: Khwaja Ahmad Abbas2,500
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Children's FilmDelhi Ki KahaniHindiProducer: Children's Film SocietyCertificate of Merit only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Children's FilmDelhi Ki KahaniHindiDirector: Rajendra KumarCertificate of Merit only

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.

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

AwardFilmLanguageAwardeeCash Prize
President's Gold Medal for the Best Documentary FilmKangra and KuluEnglishProducer: Films DivisionGold Medal and 4,000
President's Gold Medal for the Best Documentary FilmKangra and KuluEnglishDirector: N. S. Thapu1,000
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Documentary FilmSaga of ServiceEnglishProducer: Films DivisionCertificate of Merit and 2,000
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Documentary FilmSaga of ServiceEnglishDirector: Dilip Jamdar500
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Documentary FilmThe WeaversEnglishDirector: F. R. BilimoriaCertificate of Merit only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Documentary FilmThe WeaversEnglishProducer: Films DivisionCertificate of Merit only

Educational films

AwardFilmLanguageAwardeeCash Prize
Prime Minister's Gold Medal for the Best Educational FilmPond CultureEnglishProducer: Films DivisionGold Medal and 4,000
Prime Minister's Gold Medal for the Best Educational FilmPond CultureEnglishDirector: N. K. Issar1,000
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Educational FilmCottonEnglishProducer: Films DivisionCertificate of Merit only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Educational FilmCottonEnglishDirector: Krishna KapilCertificate of Merit only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Educational FilmWheatEnglishProducer: Films DivisionCertificate of Merit only
All India Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Educational FilmWheatEnglishDirector: Krishna KapilCertificate of Merit only

Awards not given

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