The 64th National Film Awards, were announced, today by the Directorate of Films, at the National Media Centre in New Delhi.

Incidentally, this was the first time, that online submissions, were invited for the prestigious awards. Neerja, Ram Madhvani's biopic on Brave heart PanAm stewardess Neerja Bhanot, won the best hindi feature film, while Akshay Kumar was adjudged, the best actor for Rustom, based on the infamous Nanavati case, while Sonam Kapoor, the lead actor of the movie Neerja, also got a special mention by the jury along with Adil Hussain for Mukti Bhawan, and Kadvi Hawa.

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal was the recipient of a special mention for his role in the blockbuster Pulimurugan as well.

The Best Kannada film was won by Reservation while Best Marathi Film award went to Dashakriya. Best Gujarati Film goes to Wrong Side Raju and Best Tamil Film Goes went to Joker by Raju Murugan.

In the previous year, the top honors were taken home by Amitabh Bachchan, (Best Actor) for Piku and Kangana Ranaut (Best Actress) for Tanu Weds Manu. The best feature film was announced for Baahubali: The Beginning, while Salman Khan starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan, was honored for providing wholesome entertainment.

The 64th National Awards, was a coalition of prizes, being given across various categories. There were 344 feature films, in 26 languages, from which the awards were chosen this year.

Here is the list of awards this year:

- Best Actor of the year conferred on Akshay Kumar for film Rustom

- Best actress is Surabhi CM for Malyalam film Minnaminungu

- Best Film is Kasav

- Best director is Rajesh Mapuskar for Ventilator

- Best film on social issues is Pink

- Best supporting actor is Manoj Joshi for Dashkriya

- Best supporting actress is Zaira Wasim for Dangal

- Best Environmental film, including agriculture conferred to ‘The Tiger who crossed the line’

- Best Hindi Feature Film is Neerja, directed by Ram Madhvani

- Best Marathi film conferred to Dashakriya

- Best Kannada Film conferred to the Reservation

- Best Bengali Film conferred to Bisarjan

- Award for Best children’s film goes to Dhanak

- Special Mention Award The Eyes of Darkness

- Best VFX award goes to Ajay Devgn’s Shivaay

- Indira Gandhi Award for debut director is Khalifa (Bengali)

- Best action director and stunt choreographer is Peter Haines for Pulimurugan

- Best editing and sound mixing award has been won by Priyanka Chopra’s Ventilator

- Best Male Playback Singer award was bagged by Sundara Iyer for Tamil film 'Joker'.

- Best female playback singer is Tumi Jake Bhalobaso by Emaan Chakraborty

- Best animation award goes to Mahayoddha Rama

- Best production design has been won by Tamil film 24

- Best book on cinema was won by Lata Surgatha — a book that narrates the story of the legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar.

Out of the 33 books, submitted in writing on cinema, the jury has selected G Dhananjayan as the Best Movie Critic. Uttar Pradesh was announced as the Most film friendly State by the jury.

The 64th National Awards jury, was headed by Priyadarshan, the director whose film Kanchivaram had won the National Award in 2007.

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