# National Film Award for Best Arts/Cultural Film

The National Film Award for Best Arts/Cultural Film 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 Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus).
The award was instituted in 1985, at 33rd National Film Awards and awarded annually for films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages.

## Winners

Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus) and cash prize. Following are the award winners over the years:
List of films, showing the year, language(s), producer(s) and director(s) :
| Year | Film(s) | Language(s) | Producer(s) | Director(s) |
| 1985 (33rd) | Warli Painting | English | B. R. Shendge | V. K. Wankhede |
| 1986 (34th) | Our Islamic Heritage: Part II | English | K. K. Garg for Films Division | K. K. Garg |
| 1986 (34th) | Classical Dance Forms of India: Koodiattam | English | Doordarshan | Prakash Jha |
| 1987 (35th) | The Kingdom of God | English | Shilpabharati Publicity | Ranabir Ray |
| 1988 (36th) | Scroll Painters of Birbhum (Patua) | English | • Dilip Ghosh • Biswanath Bose | Raja Mitra |
| 1989 (37th) | Siddheshwari | Hindi | Mani Kaul | Mani Kaul |
| 1990 (38th) | Figures of Thought | English | Arun Khopkar | Arun Khopkar |
| 1990 (38th) | Vaastu Marabu | English | Min Bimbangal | Bala Kailasam |
| 1991 (39th) | Sanchari | English | Arun Khopkar | Arun Khopkar |
| 1992 (40th) | The Recluse | Hindi | Arvind Sinha | Arvind Sinha |
| 1992 (40th) | Suchitra Mitra | Bengali | Sailen Seth | Raja Sen |
| 1993 (41st) | Anukampan | Hindi | Balaka Ghosh | Balaka Ghosh |
| 1994 (42nd) | Painting in Time | English | Topshots | Sarbajit Sen |
| 1995 (43rd) | Pakarnnattam Ammannur The Actor | Malayalam | P. G. Mohan | • M. R. Rajan • C. S. Venkiteswaran |
| 1996 (44th) | Nauka Charitramu | English | Saroj Satyanarayan | Saroj Satyanarayan |
| 1997 (45th) | The Official Art Form | English | National Gallery of Modern Art | • Suhasini Mulay • R. M. Gharekhan |
| 1998 (46th) | A Painter of Eloquent Silence: Ganesh Pyne | English | Buddhadeb Dasgupta | Buddhadeb Dasgupta |
| 1999 (47th) | "Thang Ta"- The Martial Art of Manipur | English | Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts | Aribam Syam Sharma |
| 2000 (48th) | Tribal Women Artists | Hindi | Kuldeep Sinha for Films Division | Brij Bhushan for Films Division |
| 2001 (49th) | No Award | No Award | No Award | No Award |
| 2002 (50th) | The Eye of the Fish: The Kalaries of Kerala | English | Films Division | Priya Krishnaswamy |
| 2003 (51st) | Picasso Metamorphoses | English | Y. N. Engineer for Films Division | Nandkumar Sadamate |
| 2004 (52nd) | No Award | No Award | No Award | No Award |
| 2005 (53rd) | Naina Jogin | • Hindi • Maithili | Praveen Kumar | Praveen Kumar |
| 2006 (54th) | Jatra Jeevan Jeevan Jatra | English | Kailash Bhuyan | Kapilas Bhuyan |
| 2007 (55th) | No Award | No Award | No Award | No Award |
| 2008 (56th) | Karna Motcham | Tamil | MGR Film and TV Institute | S. Murali Manohar |
| 2009 (57th) | No Award | No Award | No Award | No Award |
| 2010 (58th) | Leaving Home | Hindi | Jaideep Varma | Jaideep Varma |
| 2011 (59th) | Fried Fish, Chicken Soup and a Premiere Show | • Manipuri • English | Madhusree Dutta | Mamta Murthy |
| 2011 (59th) | Lasya Kavvya: The World of Alarmel Valli | English | Sankalp Meshram | |
| 2012 (60th) | Modikhanyachya Don Goshti | Marathi | Gouri Patwardhan | Gouri Patwardhan |
| 2013 (61st) | The Lost Behrupiya | English | Holybull Entertainment LLP | Sriram Dalton |
| 2013 (61st) | O Friend, This Waiting ! | • Telugu • English | Justin Mccarthy | Sandhya Kumar |
| 2014 (62nd) | Kapila | | Films Division | Sanju Surendran |
| 2015 (63rd) | A Far Afternoon: A Painted Saga | • Hindi • English | Piramal Art Foundation | Sruti Harihara Subramanian |
| 2015 (63rd) | Yazhpanam Thedchanamoorthy: Music Beyond Boundaries | Tamil | Siddhartha Productions | Amshan Kumar |
| 2016 (64th) | In the Shadow of Time | English | Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts | Shankhajeet Dey |
| 2016 (64th) | The Lord of the Universe | English | Shibu Prusty | Shibu Prusty |
| 2017 (65th) | Girija | | • Madhu Chandra • Sudha Datta | • Debapriya Adhikary • Samanwaya Sarkar |
| 2018 (66th) | Bunkar: The Last of The Varanasi Weavers | | • Narrative Pictures • Sapna Sharma | Satyaprakash Upadhyay |
| 2019 (67th) | Shrikshetra Ru Sahijata | Odia | Ashutosh Pattnaik | Ashutosh Pattnaik |
| 2020 (68th) | Naadada Navaneeta Dr PT Venkateshkumar | Kannada | Dept. of Information and Public Relations, Government of Karnataka | Girish Kasaravalli |
| 2021 (69th) | T. N. Krishnan Bow Strings to Divine | | NFDC | V. Packirisamy |
| 2022 (70th) | Ranga Vibhoga | Kannada | Suneel Narasimhachar Puranik | Suneel Narasimhachar Puranik |
| 2022 (70th) | Varsa | Marathi | Sachin Balasaheb Suryawanshi | Sachin Balasaheb Suryawanshi |