The National Film Award – Special Jury Award was one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It was one of several awards presented for feature films. The recipients of Special Jury Award are awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus), cash prize of ₹200,000 (US$2,300) and certificate of merit.
The award was instituted in 1978, at 26th National Film Awards and awarded annually for films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. This award considers all the aspects of film making than individual area. At the 70th National Film Awards, the award was discontinued.[1]
Winners
List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), awarded as, film(s), language(s) and citation
For making the strongest of comments in the simplest of languages on the caste system and for probing the complex relationship between a downtrodden tanner and a callous Brahmin priest in a village.
For his contribution to a whole genre of film music, for promoting the welfare of technicians of all disciplines in the film industry and for pioneering choral music of a very high order and community singing on a national scale.
For the sensitive and compulsive evolution of the much needed love for the eco-system and for defining the role of humanity in saving mankind and nature from devastation.
For having effectively projected the in-built trauma of an aspiring, thinking, creative mind, in the context of a demoralising, fossilised system of establishment that does not provide scope for fruitation of a path-finding spirit.
For a sensitive portrayal of the feeling of the poet, who is a representative of a dying humanistic culture, in course of which the life of imagination is undermined by the pressure of materialistic values.
For one of the most outstanding directors of Indian cinema, for sensitively probing the vacuum created in a family, when its central pivot is lost in death.
For a sensitive and realistic portrayal of a blind man complete with his behavioural and gestural distortions as he copes with difficulties in making life meaningful.
For his realistic portrayal of the scion of a fading aristocracy who has lost his eyesight. Soumitra with great subtlety takes us through myriad evoking situations of his life, past and present with great sensitivity.
For its realistic portrayal of the transition of a girl child from rural Tamilnadu to Chennai, in search of a livelihood. The film sensitises its viewers to the exploitation of child domestic labour, commonly prevalent within middle class families.
For throwing light on a relatively unknown aspect of the Father of the Nation and his stormy relationship with his difficult rebellious son, in a rare and compelling manner.
For a powerful cinematic presentation of an epic journey of a living character, an abandoned woman who refused to become a victim and in the process not only transformed her own life but also the lives of many others.
For his versatility. He is an actor, singer, writer and director. As actor, he has portrayed with complete ease the alcoholic, debauched and ageing pop singer whose arrogance blinds him to the fine feelings of others. The stage performance at the beginning establishes his multi dimensional abilities. Finally as a director, Dutt imbues the film with a surrealistic look of a world of dreams, drugs and irresponsibility. His performance is a cry from the heart for a lost age and a reconciliation with an emergent new angst.
Set in the criminal depths of Mumbai’s c-grade film industry, bathed in sleaze and sex, the plot explores intense and mutually destructive relationships. A densely layered narrative, period costumes and production design conveys a pulp style, all its own.
For the ability of a group of rural women characters, acting as a unit, to bring about social transformation while taking the audience through an emotional catharsis.
For telling the story innovatively about the confessions of a poor man's crime. It elaborates through his enactment and a well designed sound and voices which we do not see on the screen.