I&B ministry yet to decide on jury

New Delhi: The fate of the prestigious National Film Awards ceremony hangs in balance as the information and broadcasting ministry, headed by Smriti Irani, has not yet taken the initiative to decide on the juries that select the movies for the honour.  Following the delay in deciding the juries, the ceremony, which is scheduled to be held on May 3, could now be facing trouble in maintaining the time table.

Sources stated that the juries for award film selection are put into place at least three months ahead of the National Film Awards ceremony. Sources stated that the 65th national film awards, for the movies released in the calender year 2017, are likely to be delayed as the jury selection process itself is also a cumbersome one and senior film personalities need to be taken on board for the same before their names are decided.

“The May 3 deadline is unlikely to be met as the composition of committees is yet to be notified by the  Directorate of Film Festivals which holds the awards ceremony each year,” sources pointed out.

Sources stated that the DFF has in a directive recently earmarked 2 March as last date for submission of on-line applications and the last date for receipt of the hard copy of the submitted online application form along with the requisite material is March 5.

This delay also means that the Dada Saheb Phalke, the top national honour for the film industry, would also be delayed as it is awarded at the end of the National Film Awards. The National Film Awards, established in 1954, are presented in two main categories: Feature Films and Non-Feature Films.

The juries, both regional and at the Central level, are appointed by the Directorate of Film Festivals in India. Sources stated that though several names have been forwarded the I&B Ministry is yet to take a final call on the names. Once these juries are appointed their members go through the lengthy process of selecting movies from hundreds of submissions for various awards. “Once in place, various juries take up to two months going through betwen 200-300 films for selecting the award winners,” sources pointed out.

The awards had been facing delays and at one point were running two years behind schedule during the UPA-I tenure and were streamlined by the then I&B minister Ambika Soni during the UPA-II tenure.