Sanya Malhotra-starrer “Kathal: A Jackfruit Mystery” was named the best Hindi film.
While Hindi cinema ruled in the main categories, regional movies were recognised in categories such as best supporting actor as well as actress and in technical segments.
Vijayaraghavan for Malayalam film “Pookalam”, Muthupettai Somu Bhaskar for Tamil film “Parking” shared the best supporting actor trophy.
The best supporting actress honour went to Urvashi for Malayalam movie “Ullozhokku” and Janki Bodiwala for Gujarati title “Vash”. Both movies won best films in their respective language segments.
Ashish Bende’s Marathi film bagged the award for the best debut film of a director.
Best Film in AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming & Comic) went to Telugu film “Hanu-Man”, which also won the best action direction award.
“Animal”, another Hindi blockbuster of 2023, won awards for best sound design, best music director (background music) and a special mention for re-recording mixer.
The National Award for best screenplay was shared between Telugu movie “Baby” and Tamil film “Parking”. “Baby” singer PVN S Rohit was recognised as the best male playback singer for the song “Premisthunna”.
The best music director for songs went to G V Prakash for Tamil movie “Vaathi”. Kasarla Shyam was named best lyricist for Telugu movie “Balagam” song ‘Ooru Palleturu”.
Deepak Kingrani was named best dialogue writer for Manoj Bajpayee-fronted Hindi film “Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai” and best editing went to Malayalam title “Pookkaalam” and production design to another Malayalam movie “2018”.
Sukriti Veni Bandreddi (“Gandhi Tatha Chettu”), Kabir Khandare (“Gypsy”) and “Naal 2” cast members Treesha Thosar, Shrinivas Pokale, and Bhargav Jagtap were recognised in the best child artists category. “Naal 2” was also named best children’s film.
In the language film categories, the winners were — “Rongatapu 1982” (Assamese), “Deep Fridge” (Bengali), “Parking” (Tamil), “Kandeelu” (Kannada), “Shamchi Aai” (Marathi), “Puskara” (Odia), “Godday Godday Chaa” (Punjabi) and “Bhagavanth Kesari” (Telugu).
The winners for various non-feature categories were also announced with Hindi movie “Flowering Man” being named the best film, while the best documentary went to “God Vulture and Human”. The best director award was bagged by Piyush Thakur for “The First Film” and the best script went to Chidananda Nayak’s Kannada short film “Sunflowers were the First Ones to Know”.
