The President of India will present the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, on September 22. The awards recognise cinema from 2024 across feature films, non-feature films and writing on cinema. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting says holding the ceremony outside the national capital is part of a policy to take the awards to different regions of the country.
The awards, instituted in 1954, are also a window into India’s linguistic and regional diversity. This edition includes the first Santhali film to be recognised in the non-feature section, adding another layer to the awards’ role in documenting cinema beyond the largest commercial industries.