59th National Film Awards

59th National Film Awards
59th National Film Awards
	59th National Film Awards event logo
Awarded for	Best of Indian cinema in 2011
Awarded by	Directorate of Film Festivals
Presented by	Mohammad Hamid Ansari; (Vice-President of India)
Announced on	7 March 2012
Presented on	3 May 2012
Site	Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi
Hosted by	Vinay Pathak and Saumya Tandon
Official website	dff.nic.in
Highlights
Best Feature Film	Deool; Byari;
Best Non-Feature Film	And We Play On
Best Book	R. D. Burman: The Man The Music
Best Film Critic	Manoj Barpujari
Dadasaheb Phalke Award	Soumitra Chatterjee
Most awards	• Anhe Ghore Da Daan; • Balgandharva; • Chillar Party; • Deool; • Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona; • The Dirty Picture (3)
	← 58th; National Film Awards; 60th →;

The 59th National Film Awards, presented by the Directorate of Film Festivals, honoured the best of Indian cinema for 2011 and took place on 3 May 2012 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Awards were presented in 38 categories in the Feature Films section, 20 categories in the Non-Feature Films section and two categories for the Best Writing on Cinema section; 41 jury members chose the winners from 392 entries. The ceremony was hosted by actors Vinay Pathak and Saumya Tandon. Awards were presented by the Vice-President of India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari. The ceremony was broadcast live on three television channels, eleven All India Radio stations, and webcast live.

Deool, a Marathi film, and Byari, the first and only Beary film, shared the award for the Best Feature Film. The award for the Best Non-Feature Film was given to the Hindi-English documentary And We Play On. The book, R. D. Burman: The Man, The Music, co-authored by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, won the Best Book on Cinema; Assamese film critic Manoj Barpujari was declared the Best Film Critic. Gurvinder Singh won the best feature film direction award for his directorial debut, Anhe Ghore Da Daan. For the film Deool, Girish Kulkarni won the awards for Best Actor and Best Dialogue; Bollywood actress Vidya Balan won the Best Actress award for The Dirty Picture. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, regarded as the most prestigious recognition in Indian cinema, was given to the veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee for his contribution to Bengali cinema.