| National Film Award – Special Jury Award (Non-Feature Film) | |
| Subheader: | National award for contributions to short film Instituted in 1978 |
| Sponsor: | Directorate of Film Festivals |
| Firstawarded: | 1984 |
| Lastawarded: | 2019 |
| Former Name: | Special Commendation (1978) |
| Holder Label: | Most recent winner |
| Holder: | Small Scale Societies |
| Award1 Type: | Total awarded |
| Award1 Winner: | 39 |
| Award2 Type: | First winner |
| Award2 Winner: | Shri Hemkunt Saahib |
The National Film Award – Special Jury Award (Non-Feature Film) is 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 is one of several awards presented for non-feature films. The recipients of Special Jury Award are awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus), cash prize of and certificate of merit.
The award was instituted in 1978, at 26th National Film Awards and awarded annually for the short films produced in the year across the country, in all Indian languages.
Award includes 'Rajat Kamal' (Silver Lotus), cash prize of and certificate of merit for the recipients of Special Jury Award. This award considers all the aspects of film making than individual area. Following are the award winners over the years:
| List of award recipients, showing the year (award ceremony), awarded as, film(s), language(s) and citation | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Recipient(s) | Awarded as | Film(s) | Language(s) | Citation | ||
| 1978 | No Award | [1] | |||||
| 1979 | No Award | ||||||
| 1980 | No Award | [2] | |||||
| 1981 | No Award | [3] | |||||
| 1982 | No Award | [4] | |||||
| 1983 | No Award | [5] | |||||
| 1984 | Shri Hemkunt Saahib | [6] | |||||
| 1985 | Rajan Khosa | Director | Bodhvriksha | Hindi | [7] | ||
| 1986 | Yash Chaudhary | Director | Equal Partners | English | [8] | ||
| 1987 | Rajiv Mehrotra | Producer Director Cameraman | Barren Harvest | English | [9] | ||
| 1988 | Mani Kaul | Director | Before My Eyes | [10] | |||
| 1989 | K. R. Mohanan | Director | Kalamandalam Krishnankutty Poduval | Malayalam | [11] | ||
| 1990 | Gulzar | Director | Ustad Amjad Ali Khan | Hindi | [12] | ||
| 1991 | Aribam Syam Sharma | Director | Meitei Pung | English | [13] | ||
| 1991 | B. Narsing Rao | Director | Akruti | ||||
| 1992 | Salam Karassery | Producer | Noottantinte Sakshi | Malayalam | [14] | ||
| Sasibhushan | Director | ||||||
| 1993 | Murali Nair | Director | Tragedy of an Indian Farmer | English | [15] | ||
| Mahesh Thottathil | Director | Death of a Prodigal Son | Hindi English | ||||
| 1994 | Soumitra Sarkar | Producer Director Screenwriter | Games We Played in My Youth | English Bengali | [16] | ||
| 1995 | Sehjo Singh | Producer | Sona Maati | Marwari | [17] | ||
| 1996 | Nilotpal Majumdar | Producer Director Cinematographer | Dhatu Jhar '96 | Bengali | [18] | ||
| 1997 | No Award | [19] | |||||
| 1998 | Pavan Malhotra | Actor | Faqir | Hindi | [20] | ||
| 1999 | Deep Prakash | Director | Of Confucius, S-Spots and Toyguns | English Hindi Marathi Tamil | [21] | ||
| 2000 | Roabin Mazumdar | Producer | A Memory of the Sea | English | [22] | ||
| Lygia Mathews | Director | ||||||
| 2001 | Kireet Khurana | Producer | Orchestra | Hindi | [23] | ||
| Bhimsain | Director | ||||||
| 2002 | Wrik Basu and team | Director | 00:00 | English | [24] | ||
| 2003 | Kadhambari Chintamani | Producer | The Lijjat Sisterhood | English | [25] | ||
| Ajit Oommen | Director | ||||||
| 2003 | Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti | Director | Ek Aakash | ||||
| 2004 | Amit Dutta | Director | Kshy Tra Ghya | Hindi | [26] | ||
| 2005 | Rakesh Sharma | Director | Final Solution | Hindi Gujarati English | [27] | ||
| 2006 | Anuradha Mookerjee | Producer | Lama Dances of Sikkim | English | [28] | ||
| Manash Bhowmick | Director | ||||||
| 2007 | Amalan Datta | Producer | Bhultir Khero | Bengali | [29] | ||
| Anirban Datta | Director | ||||||
| Public Service Broadcasting Trust | Producer | Poomaram | Malayalam | ||||
| Vipin Vijay | Director | ||||||
| 2008 | Rajesh S. Jala | Director | Children of the Pyre | Hindi | [30] | ||
| 2009 | Aasna Aslam | Child actor | Kelkkunnundo | Malayalam | [31] | ||
| 2010 | No Award | [32] | |||||
| 2011 | Anand Patwardhan | Director | Jai Bhim Comrade | Marathi | [33] | ||
| 2012 | Shumona Goel | Director | I Am Micro | English | [34] | ||
| Shai Heredia | |||||||
| Vasudha Joshi | Director | Cancer Katha | English | ||||
| 2013 | Girish Kasaravalli | Director | Ananthamurthy – Not A Biography...But A Hypothesis | English | [35] | ||
| Satyanshu Singh | Director | Tamaash | English | ||||
| Devanshu Singh | |||||||
| 2014 | Films Division | Producer | A Poet, A City & A Footballer | English | [36] | ||
| Joshy Joseph | Director | ||||||
| 2015 | No Award | [37] | |||||
| 2016 | Shirley Abraham | Producer and director | The Cinema Travellers | [38] | |||
| 2017 | Films Division of India | Producer | A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings | ||||
| Prateek Vats | Director | ||||||
| FTII | Producer | Monday | |||||
| Arun K. | Director | ||||||
| 2018 | Harish Shah | Director | Why Me ? | ||||
| Neeraj Singh | Art Director | Ekaant | |||||
| 2019 | Vipin Vijay | Director | Small Scale Societies | English | [39] | ||