92 winners were honoured at the 72nd National Film Awards ceremony in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat.
President Droupadi Murmu presented the awards on September 22.
It was the first time the ceremony was held outside Delhi.
Article 370 won Best Feature Film.
Anant Nag received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
President Murmu felicitated a total of 92 winners at the ceremony.
The National Film Awards are given annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, part of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Holding the ceremony at Ekta Nagar, home to the Statue of Unity, marked a departure from the awards’ traditional Delhi venue.
The Gujarat Chief Minister was among those who joined President Murmu at the ceremony.
The National Film Awards recognise achievement across feature films, non-feature films and best writing on cinema, spanning multiple Indian languages.
The awards are decided by juries appointed by the Directorate of Film Festivals for each category.
Past ceremonies were traditionally held in New Delhi, often with the President of India as the chief guest.
The Statue of Unity, located at Ekta Nagar, is one of the tallest statues in the world and has become a major tourism and event venue in Gujarat.
Winners at the National Film Awards typically receive a certificate, a medal and a cash prize alongside the trophy.
The awards are among the oldest and most prestigious film honours in India, first instituted in the 1950s.
Regional-language cinema is a significant part of the National Film Awards each year, alongside Hindi-language films.
President Droupadi Murmu presented the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat on September 22, 2026.
It was the first time in the awards’ more than 70-year history that the ceremony was held outside Delhi.
Article 370 was adjudged the Best Feature Film.
Mammootty and Kartik Aaryan shared the Best Actor in a Leading Role award, for Bramayugam and Chandu Champion respectively.
Statue of Unity, Ekta Nagar, Gujarat (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
