39th National Film Awards
The 39th National Film Awards were presented by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1991, with the ceremony taking place in 1992.
With the 39th National Film Awards, two new awards were introduced for the feature films section. These awards include the National Film Award for Best Special Effects and the National Film Award for Best Choreography and were awarded with Rajat Kamal. These two newly introduced awards were not given for 39th National Film Awards as no films/entries were found to be suitable.
Also, the National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema and the National Film Award for Best Film Critic, which were until then awarded with Rajat Kamal, were awarded with Swarna Kamal.
Awards
Awards were divided into feature films, non-feature films, and books written on Indian cinema.Lifetime Achievement Award
| Name of Award | Image | Awardee | Awarded As | Awards |
| Dadasaheb Phalke Award | Bhalji Pendharkar | Film director, Film producer and screenwriter | Swarna Kamal, and a Shawl |
Feature films
Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 39th National Film Awards, a Bengali film, Agantuk won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film also winning the maximum number of awards along with a Malayalam film, Bharatham and a Hindi film, Dharavi. Following were the awards given in each category:Juries
A committee headed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. Following were the jury members:Jury Members- * Adoor Gopalakrishnan Aamir Raza HusainAshish SarafFirooze RangoonwalaGummadiHema ChaudharyR. LakshmanLalitha RaveeNabyendu ChatterjeeNityananda SamntarayP. MadhavanPrafulla SaikiaP. R. S. PillayRaja MitraSreekumaran ThampiUrvashi TalwarVinod Nagpal
All India Award
Following were the awards given:Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna KamalAll the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award ', a certificate and cash prize.
Silver Lotus Award
Official Name: Rajat KamalAll the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award ', a certificate and cash prize.
Regional Awards
The award is given to best film in the regional languages in India.Non-Feature Films
Short Films made in any Indian language and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification as a documentary/newsreel/fiction are eligible for non-feature film section.Juries
A committee headed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards. Following were the jury members:Jury Members- * Buddhadeb Dasgupta Arun KaulJag MohanJehangir ChaudharyVijaya Mulay
Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna KamalAll the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award ', a certificate and cash prize.
Silver Lotus Award
Official Name: Rajat KamalAll the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award ' and cash prize.
Best Writing on Cinema
The awards aim at encouraging study and appreciation of cinema as an art form and dissemination of information and critical appreciation of this art-form through publication of books, articles, reviews etc.Juries
A committee headed by Kamleshwar was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema. Following were the jury members:Jury Members- * Kamleshwar Shanta Sarbjeet SinghVijay Sasnur
Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna KamalAll the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award ' and cash prize.