India National Film Awards Committee to Now Accept Digital Films

New Delhi,  Aug 14 : National Film Awards committee will now accept digital films to consider for awards. Digital films can be submitted even if they have not been released with a celluloid print. This decision comes after a petition was filed by filmmakers from Manipur where cinema halls have been shut down due to militancy and filmmaking has gone totally digital. 

An expert committee led by filmmaker Shyam Benegal has recommended this and a few other changes which will be implemented from National Film awards 2009 onwards. The awards for 2009 are likely to be announced on September 15.

The cash prize for the Best Film has been increased to Rs 1.5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh to the director and producer each. For the Best Debut Non-Feature Film Award, the cash prize has gone up from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. In the Special Jury Award, Cash component enhanced from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 2 lakh in feature films, and Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in non-feature films.

New award categories have also been instituted. Best Location Sound Recordist & Sound Designer are the two new awards in the Sound category. An award for background Score has also been introduced. There will be separate awards for Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay and Dialogues. The Award for Best Film on Family Welfare has been abolished.

It was announced earlier that a two-tier Jury system will be in place for feature films. Five regional panels will do a pre-selection of films, recommending 30 per cent of the films entered in their respective zones or six films – whichever number is higher – to the main jury.