The 49th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2001.
[1] Awards were announced by the committee headed by K. S. Sethumadhavan, K. K. Kapil and Bharat Gopy for the feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema, respectively, on 26 July 2002; whereas award ceremony took place on 13 February 2003 and awards were given away by then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
A committee headed by K. K. Kapil was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards.
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.
A committee headed by Bharat Gopy was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema.