National Film Awards Highlights: Kannada cinema shines bright as KGF 2, Kantara bag wins, Rishab Shetty gets best actor prize

National Film Awards will be announced at 1:30 pm

Speculation is that 'Kantara' is in the race for best movie. Mammooty and Rishab Shetty locked in the contest for best actor award

From Bollywood, the top names in circulation are Vikrant Massey and his film 12th Fail.

Mammootty (Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam), Rishab Shetty (Kantara) , Vikram (Ponniyin Selvan 1) and Vikrant Massey (12th Fail) are leading the race for Best Actor

70th National Film Awards winners to be announced at 1:30 pm

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) will announce the National Film Awards 2024 winners in a press conference at the National Media Centre, New Delhi.

Watch the live updates here

History of National Award and lesser-known facts about it

The Indian National Film Awards were introduced for the first time in 1954.

National Award is organised by the Directorate of Film Festival under the patronage Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

The awards were initially called 'State Awards'.

The first national award was given to a Marathi film 'Shyamchi Aai' directed by PK Atre

Poster of Marathi film 'Shyamchi Aai'.

Know the Jury members

Sudhir Mishra, Priyanandanan TR, C Ajoy, NS Madhavan and Ann Augustine are the jury members.

The also jury includes - Rahul Rawail, Chairperson of the Feature Film Jury; Nila Madhab Panda, Chairperson of the Non-Feature Film Jury; Mr. Gangadhar Mudalair, Chairperson of the Best Writing on Cinema Jury.

Joint Secretary Vrunda Desai delivers the welcome speech, outlining the list of films in each category for 2022

Vrunda Desai

National Film Awards 2024: Best Editing Non-Feature

Suresh Urs won 'Best Editing' in non-feature category for his work in Madhyantara.

National Film Awards 2024: Best Music Direction Non-Feature

Multi-talented Vishal Bhardwaj won the 'Best Music Direction' award for Fursat.

National Film Awards 2024: Sohil Vaidya's Murmurs of the Jungle won Best Documentary

Poster of Murmurs of the Jungle.

National Film Awards 2024: KGF Chapter 2 won Best Kannada Film

Poster of KGF 2.

Rishab Shetty bags best actor award for Kantara

Malayalam movie Aattam: The Play bags National Film Award for best feature film

Best Actress award shared by Nithya Menen for Thiruchitrambalam and Manasi Parekh for Kutch Express

Best Director award: Sooraj Barjatya for Uunchai

Neena Gupta is best supporting actress for Uunchai, Pawan Malhotra best supporting actor for Fouja

Best female playback singer: Bombay Jayashri

Best male playback singer: Arijit Singh