26th National Film Awards


The 26th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1978. Ceremony took place in April 1979.

Juries

Two different committees were formed for feature films and short films, headed by Chetan Anand and Kironmoy Raha respectively.
Awards were divided into feature films and non-feature films.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Name of AwardAwardeeAwarded AsAwards
Dadasaheb Phalke AwardRaichand BoralMusic director and Film directorSwarna Kamal, 40,000 and a Shawl

Feature films

Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 26th National Film Awards, no film was awarded the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film. It is the only year for National Film Awards not to give away this award till now. A Hindi film Gaman, a Bengali film Parashuram and a Malayalam film Thampu won the maximum number of awards. Following were the awards given in each category:

All India Award

Following were the awards given:

Regional Award

The awards were given to the best films made in the regional languages of India. For feature films in Bengali, English, Hindi, Kashmiri, Meitei and Punjabi, award for Best Feature Film was not given.

Non-Feature films

Following were the awards given:

Short films

Awards not given

Following were the awards not given as no film was found to be suitable for the award: