National Film Award for Best Feature Film

Since its inception in 1953, the producer of the film is awarded with the gold medal and a certificate.^[1] A cash prize of ₹ 20,000 was introduced at the 5th National Film Awards (1957) and was revised to ₹ 40,000 at the 18th National Film Awards (1970),^[4] to ₹ 50,000 at the 28th National Film Awards (1980),^[5] to ₹ 2,50,000 at the 54th National Film Awards (2006).^[6][7]

From 1953 till 1956,^[1][8] the director of the film was awarded with the Gold medal which was later changed in 1957 to a cash prize of ₹ 5,000.^[6] From 1967 till 1973,^[2][9] a plaque was also awarded to the director and cash prize was revised to ₹ 10,000 in 1970.^[4] At the 22nd National Film Awards (1974),^[10] the award for the director was changed to Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) and a cash prize of ₹ 15,000 which was later revised to ₹ 20,000 at the 25th National Film Awards (1977).^[11] Since 28th National Film Awards (1980),^[5] the director is awarded with the Swarna Kamal and a cash prize of ₹ 25,000 which was later revised to ₹50,000 at the 28th National Film Awards (1980),^[5] ₹2,50,000 at the 54th National Film Awards (2006),^[7] and ₹3,00,000 at the 70th National Film Awards (2022).^[12]

In 1973 and 1974, the lead actor and actress of the film were also awarded. P. J. Antony and Sumithra received a souvenir for Malayalam film Nirmalyam at the 21st National Film Awards (1973).^[9] Antony was also awarded the Best Actor, then known as the "Bharat Award for the Best Actor". Utpal Dutt and Gita Sen were awarded with a medallion for Bengali Film Chorus at 22nd National Film Awards (1974).^[10]

As of 2023 edition, 71 feature films have been awarded: Bengali (22); Malayalam (13);Hindi (12);^[a] Kannada and Marathi (each 6);^[b] Tamil (4); Assamese, Gujarati^[b] and Sanskrit (each 2); Beary and Telugu (each 1). At the 26th National Film Awards (1978), no feature film was awarded with the Best Feature film award as the jury headed by filmmaker Chetan Anand scrutinised eighty films but did not consider any film to be "worthy of merit" and "measured up to the standard of excellence set forth by the jury".^[13] At the 59th National Film Awards, two feature films shared the award; Marathi film Deool (Temple) and Beary film Byari.^[14] Most recently, the award is presented to the film 12th Fail, directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

Satyajit Ray is the most honoured director where six of his films—Pather Panchali (1955), Apur Sansar (1959), Charulata (1964), Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1968), Seemabaddha (1971), and Agantuk (1991)—won the award, followed Buddhadeb Dasgupta (five), Girish Kasaravalli and Mrinal Sen (four each), Shaji N. Karun (three), and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Tapan Sinha, G. V. Iyer and Priyadarshan (two each). As of 2022, the award was presented to the films of Eleven debutant directors; Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali, 1955),^[15] Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Swayamvaram, 1972),^[16] M. T. Vasudevan Nair (Nirmalyam, 1973),^[17] Girish Kasaravalli (Ghatashraddha, 1977),^[18] Shaji N Karun (Piravi, 1988),^[19] Sandeep Sawant (Shwaas, 2003),^[20] Salim Ahamed (Adaminte Makan Abu, 2010),^[21] Suveeran (Byari, 2011),^[22] Anand Gandhi (Ship of Theseus, 2013),^[23] Chaitanya Tamhane (Court, 2015), Abhishek Shah^[24][25] ( Hellaro^[26] 2018). Five films awarded with the Best Feature film award were also the Indian submission for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film; Apur Sansar (1959), Shwaas (2004), Adaminte Makan Abu (2011), Court (2015) and Village Rockstars (2018) .^[27] Adi Shankaracharya (1983), the first film made in Sanskrit language,^[28] and Byari (2011), the first film made in Beary language,^[22] won the award at the 31st National Film Awards and 59th National Film Awards, respectively.