# National Film Award for Best Debut Film of a Director (non-feature film)

The National Film Award for Best Debut Film of a Director is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for non-feature films and awarded with Golden Lotus (Swarna Kamal).
The award was instituted in 1989, at 37th National Film Awards and awarded annually for films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. Since the 70th National Film Awards, the name was changed to "Best Debut Film of a Director" and was changed the status from Silver Lotus to Golden Lotus. Also, the director is alone eligible for the award since this edition.

## Winners

Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus) and cash prize. Following are the award winners over the years:
* Indicates a joint award for that year

### 1992–present

List of award recipients, showing the year, film(s), language(s), producer(s) and director(s) :
| Year | Film(s) | Language(s) | Producer(s) | Director(s) |
| 1991 (39th) | Kamlabai | • Marathi • Hindi | Reena Mohan | Reena Mohan |
| 1992 (40th) | Knock-Out | Tamil | B. Lenin | B. Lenin |
| 1993 (41st) | Bazar Sitaram | Hindi | Neena Gupta for Films Division | Neena Gupta |
| 1994 (42nd) | A Little War | Hindi | FTII | Atanu Biswas |
| 1995 (43rd) | All Alone If Need Be | English | Amulya Kakati | Ranjit Das |
| 1996 (44th) | Yeh Woh Sahar To Nahin | Hindi | FTII | Sudhakar Rao |
| 1997 (45th) | Mizhavu – A Silent Drum Beat | English | P. D. Raphel | K. R. Subhash |
| 1998 (46th) | Repentance | Malayalam | Mohan Agashe for Films Division | Rajeev Raj |
| 1999 (47th) | Deivangal Padiyirangumbol (When Gods Depart) | Tamil | Pradeep Kumar | Pradeep Kumar |
| 2000 (48th) | Meena Jha | Hindi | Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute | Anjalika Sharma |
| 2001 (49th) | Diary of a Housewife | Malayalam | • Asha Joseph • Vinod Sukumaran | Vinod Sukumaran |
| 2002 (50th) | Paramapatham | Tamil | Film and Television Institute of Tamil Nadu | Prabhu Radhakrishnan |
| 2002 (50th) | Beyond or Within | English | P. T. M. Payyoli | Vinod Mankara |
| 2003 (51st) | An Encounter with a Life Living | • Hindi • English | Vinu Abraham | Suja |
| 2004 (52nd) | Ek Sagar Kinaree... A Seaside Story | • Marathi • English | Gomantak Marathi Academy | Laxmikant Shetgaonkar |
| 2005 (53rd) | John and Jane | English | Ashim Ahluwalia | Ashim Ahluwalia |
| 2006 (54th) | Andhiyum | Malayalam | N. Dinesh Rajkumar | Jacob Varghese |
| 2007 (55th) | Lal Juto | Bengali | Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute | Shweta Merchant |
| 2008 (56th) | Vitthal | Marathi | • Vinoo Choliparambil • Manu Pushpendran | Vinoo Choliparambil |
| 2009 (57th) | Vaishnav Jan Toh | Hindi | FTII | Kaushal Oza |
| 2009 (57th) | Ekti Kaktaliyo Golpo | Bengali | FTII | Tathagata Singha |
| 2010 (58th) | Pistulya | • Marathi • Telugu | Nagraj Manjule | Nagraj Manjule |
| 2011 (59th) | The Silent Poet | Meitei | Borun Thokchom | Borun Thokchom |
| 2012 (60th) | Eka Gachha Eka Manisa Eka Samudra | Oriya | Veenu Bhushan Vaid | Lipika Singh Darai |
| 2013 (61st) | Kanyaka | Malayalam | Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute | Christo Tomy |
| 2014 (62nd) | Goonga Pehelwan | | Drishti Media | • Mit Jani • Prateek Gupta • Vivek Chaudhary |
| 2015 (63rd) | Daaravtha | Marathi | Nishantroy Bombarde | Nishantroy Bombarde |
| 2016 (64th) | Soz...A Ballad of Maladies | | Rajiv Mehrotra | Tushar Madhav |
| 2017 (65th) | Water Baby | | Varun Shah | Pia Shah |
| 2018 (66th) | Feluda: 50 Years of Ray's Detective | | Sagnik Chatterjee | Sagnik Chatterjee |
| 2019 (67th) | Khisa | Marathi | Santosh Maithani | Raj Pritam More |
| 2020 (68th) | Pariah | • Marathi • Hindi | MIT School of Film & Television | Vishesh Iyer |
| 2021 (69th) | Paanchika | | Shreya Kapadiya | Ankit Kothari |

### 2022–present

Since the 70th National Film Awards, director alone is awarded.
List of award films, showing the year (award ceremony), language(s) and director(s) :
| Year | Film(s) | Language(s) | Director(s) | Refs. |
| 2022 (70th) | Madhyantara | Kannada | Basti Dinesh Shenoy | |