| National Film Award for Best Cinematography | |
|---|---|
| National award for contributions to non-feature films | |
| Sponsored by | National Film Development Corporation of India |
| Rewards |
|
| First award | 1990 |
| Final award | 2023 |
| Most recent winner | Saravanamaruthu Soundarapandi Meenakshi Soman |
| Highlights | |
| Total awarded | 80 |
| First winner |
|
TheNational Film Award for Best Cinematography is one of theNational Film Awards presented annually by theNational 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 1990, at38th National Film Awards and awarded annually for short films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages. Since the70th National Film Awards (2022), the primary/main cinematographer is eligible to the award, thus eliminating the existing Cameraman and Laboratory Processing sub-categories.[1]
Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus) and cash prize. Following are the award winners over the years:
| Indicates a joint award for that year |
| List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s) and language(s) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Cameraman(s) | Laboratory Processing | Film(s) | Language(s) | Refs. |
| 1990 (38th) | Santosh Sivan | Prasad Film Laboratories | Mohiniyattam | English | [2] |
| Victor Banerjee | Prasad Film Laboratories | Where No Journeys End | English | ||
| 1991 (39th) | Shekar Dattatri[3] | Prasad Film Laboratories | Silent Valley: An Indian Rain forest[4] | English | [5] |
| 1992 (40th) | Soumendu Roy | Adlabs | Sucitra Mitra[6] | Bengali | [7] |
| 1993 (41st) | Piyush Shah | – | Moksha | Bengali | [8] |
| 1994 (42nd) | Anoop Jotwani | Vijay Color Lab | Rasayatra[9] | • Hindi • English | [10] |
| 1995 (43rd) | Rafey Mehmood | Adlabs | Tarana[11] | Hindi | [12] |
| 1996 (44th) | Hari Nair | Prasad Film Laboratories | Sham's Vision | English | [13] |
| 1997 (45th) | Ashok Dasgupta | – | The Trail[14] | English | [15] |
| 1998 (46th) | Ranjan Palit | Prasad Film Laboratories | In The Forest Hangs a Bridge[16] | English | [17] |
| 1999 (47th) | Mankada Ravi Varma | Prasad Film Laboratories | Kalamandalam Gopi[18] | Malayalam | [19] |
| 2000 (48th) | Prasann Jain | Adlabs | Rasikpriya | • Hindi • English | [20] |
| 2001 (49th) | Nilotpal Sarkar | Prasad Film Laboratory | Jorasanko Thakurbari | English | [21] |
| Irom Maipak | Prasad Kalinga Lab | The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh | English | ||
| 2002 (50th) | No Award | [22] | |||
| 2003 (51st) | Ranjan Palit | Prasad Film Laboratory | Kaya Poochhe Maya Se | Hindi | [23] |
| K. G. Jayan | Prasad Film Laboratory | The 18th Elephant: Three Monologues | Malayalam | ||
| 2004 (52nd) | Manoj Raymond Lobo | Adlabs | Girni | Marathi | [24] |
| 2005 (53rd) | Paramvir Singh | Adlabs | Parsiwada, Tarapore Present Day | • English • Gujarati | [25] |
| 2006 (54th) | Rajendra Janglay | – | Raga of River Narmada | – | [26] |
| Sanjay V. | |||||
| 2007 (55th) | Savita Singh | – | Kramasha | Hindi | [27] |
| 2008 (56th) | Shariqva Badar Khan | Filmlab | Three of Us | – | [28] |
| Jaya Krishna Gummadi | Adlabs | When This Man Dies | • Hindi • English | ||
| 2009 (57th) | Deepu S. Unni | Adlabs | Gaarud | • Hindi • Marathi | [29] |
| 2010 (58th) | Murali G. | Filmlab | Shyam Raat Seher | • Hindi • English | [30] |
| 2011 (59th) | S. Nallamuthu | – | Tiger Dynasty | English | [31] |
| 2012 (60th) | Abhimanyu Dange | Reliance MediaWorks | Kaatal | Marathi | [32] |
| Raja Shabir Khan | – | Shepherds of Paradise | • Gojri • Urdu | ||
| 2013 (61st) | Kavin Jagtiani | Reliance MediaWorks | Mandrake !Mandrake ! | Hindi | [33] |
| 2014 (62nd) | Indraneel Lahiri | – | Aamaar Katha: Story of Binodini | Bengali | [34] |
| 2015 (63rd) | Amartya Bhattacharyya | – | Benaras: The Unexplored Attachments | Bengali | [35] |
| 2016 (64th) | Alpesh Nagar | – | Kalpvriksha | Hindi | [36] |
| Vishal Sangwai | Adnyat | English | |||
| 2017 (65th) | Appu Prabhakar | – | Eye Test | – | [37] |
| Arnold Fernandes | Dawn | – | |||
| 2018 (66th) | Ajay Bedi | – | The Secret Life of Frogs | – | [38] |
| 2019 (67th) | Savita Singh | – | Sonsi | Hindi | [39] |
| 2020 (68th) | Nikhil S Praveen | – | Shabdikkunna Kalappa (Talking Plow) | Malayalam | [40] |
| 2021 (69th) | Bittu Rawat | – | Pataal-Tee | Bhotiya | [41] |
Since the70th National Film Awards, cinematographer alone is awarded.
| List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s) and language(s) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Recipient(s) | Film(s) | Language(s) | Refs. |
| 2022 (70th) | Siddharth Diwan | Mono No Aware | • Hindi • English | [42] |
| 2023 (71st) | Saravanamaruthu Soundarapandi Meenakshi Soman | Little Wings | Tamil | [43] |