More significance to regional language films at the National Film Awards

In order to provide more significance and spotlight to the regional language films at the National Film Awards, the government has decided to soon introduce a new two-tier selection system. The delayed selections for the year 2009 Awards will be announced under the new system.

This decision comes on the basis of recommendations which was submitted by an expert committee. This committee was headed by filmmaker Shyam Benegal.
For this new procedure, five regional panels will be constituted to select the various best films in their own areas. Then a central jury will make the final award decision.

The northern region will include films in languages like English, Punjabi, Dogri, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani and central Indian languages. The western region will include films of Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and Konkani languages. Similarly the other regions will also have certain categories.