The 51st 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 2003.
[1] Awards were announced by the committee headed by Basu Chatterjee, Bhimsain and K. N. T. Sastry for the feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema, respectively, on 14 August 2004;[2] whereas award ceremony took place on 3 February 2005 and awards were given away by then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
A committee headed by Bhim Sen 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 K. N. T. Sastry was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema.