National Film Awards (Nepal): Full Winners Archive by Year

The National Film Awards, known in Nepali as the Rastriya Chalachitra Puraskar (राष्ट्रिय चलचित्र पुरस्कार), are widely regarded as the most prominent and prestigious honours in Nepali cinema. They are organised by the Film Development Board (FDB / Chalachitra Vikas Board), the Government of Nepal body established to develop, regulate and promote the country's film industry. The first ceremony was held in 2005 (2062 BS), and the awards have since become the benchmark national recognition for feature films and the artists and technicians behind them.

The awards honour excellence across a wide range of categories. The headline prizes are Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress, but the FDB also recognises supporting performances, screenplay, cinematography, editing, music, and films made in Nepal's indigenous and ethnic languages (such as Newar, Gurung, Limbu and Nepal Bhasa productions). Senior artists are additionally honoured with a Lifetime Achievement or Long Service honour (Dirgha Sadhana Samman) and cash prizes.

In recent editions the awards have been presented by the President of Nepal at the presidential residence, Shital Niwas (Sitalnivas) in Kathmandu, underscoring their status as a state-level cultural event. A jury panel, typically chaired by a senior film figure, selects winners from eligible Nepali films released in the qualifying period.

Understanding the National Film Awards requires care with Nepal's dual calendar. An edition is usually named after the Bikram Sambat (BS) year of the films being honoured, while the actual ceremony is often held one to two years later in a subsequent BS year. For example, the awards honouring films of 2076 and 2077 BS were presented together at a single ceremony held on 4 Baishakh 2079 BS (April 2022), because ceremonies were delayed and sometimes combined during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This means the 'award year' and the 'ceremony date' are frequently different, and different outlets may label the same set of winners by either year. English-language media typically convert to Gregorian (AD) dates, while Nepali sources and the FDB use BS. Where possible, this archive gives both the BS award year and the approximate AD ceremony date, but readers should expect minor labelling differences between sources.

Because early editions were held irregularly and some years were skipped or merged, the ceremonies are not always numbered in a clean, continuous sequence. Readers researching a specific 'national film award nepal winners' list should confirm whether a source is citing the film year or the ceremony year.

The inaugural 2005 (2062 BS) awards named Bandhaki as Best Film, with Kishor Rana Magar taking Best Director for the same film. Nikhil Uprety won Best Actor for Hami Teen Bhai and Jal Shah won Best Actress for Yastai Rahecha Zindagi. Subsequent early editions honoured commercially successful mainstream films: the 2006 (2063 BS) awards recognised Bhuwan KC (Best Actor, Duniya) and Rekha Thapa (Best Actress, Himmat), while director Shiva Regmi won for Duniya.

In 2008 (2065 BS), the war-themed Jana Yuddha was named Best Film and Aakash Adhikari won Best Actor for it, while Rekha Thapa won Best Actress for Kismat and Ujwal Ghimire took Best Director for the same film. Ghimire went on to win Best Director again in 2010 (2067 BS) for Chhodi Gaye Paap Lagla, which was also named Best Film, with Anup Baral (Best Actor, Dasdhunga) and Sanchita Luitel (Best Actress) among the winners.

The early 2010s saw the awards begin to reflect Nepal's emerging 'new wave' cinema alongside commercial hits. Notebook won Best Film for 2012 (2069 BS) with Jharana Thapa as Best Actress, while Sanghuro was Best Film for 2013 and Garima Panta won Best Actress that year and again in 2014 (2070 BS) for the acclaimed drama Jhola, which was named Best Film of 2014.

From the mid-2010s, the National Film Awards increasingly recognised critically ambitious cinema. For 2015 (2071 BS), Kabaddi was named Best Film and Nischal Basnet won Best Director for Talakjung vs Tulke; Dayahang Rai took Best Actor for Sambodhan, one of the wins that cemented his standing as a leading actor of the new wave. Rai won Best Actor again for 2016 (2072 BS) for Kabaddi Kabaddi, the year Pashupati Prasad was named Best Film and Dipendra K. Khanal won Best Director for it.

Dayahang Rai's National Film Award record also includes an earlier Best Supporting Actor win for Dasdhunga, making him one of the most decorated actors in the awards' history. His success mirrored a broader shift toward realist, story-driven films that also earned international festival recognition.

Actor Bipin Karki emerged as another defining winner of this period, taking Best Actor for 2017 (2073 BS) for the comedy Jatra, and again for 2019 (2075 BS) for Prasad. The 2017 edition named Kalo Pothi (The Black Hen) among its top honours and recognised Deepak Rauniyar's direction of White Sun (Seto Surya), while Srijana Subba won Best Actress for Dying Candle. In 2019, Binod Poudel won Best Director for Bulbul and Swastima Khadka won Best Actress for the same film.

After pandemic-related delays, the FDB held a combined ceremony on 4 Baishakh 2079 BS (April 2022) honouring films of 2076 and 2077 BS. Ama (आमा) was named Best Film, with Dipendra K. Khanal winning Best Director for it and Suraksha Pant winning Best Actress for the same film. Comedian-actor Deepak Raj Giri won Best Actor for Cha Maya Chhapakkai, while the Gurung-language film Pache Gore was honoured as best indigenous/ethnic film.

For 2081 BS, presented at a ceremony in mid-July 2025 by President Ram Chandra Paudel, Min Bahadur Bham's internationally acclaimed Shambhala was declared Best Film and won him Best Director. Bijay Baral won Best Actor for Purna Bahadurko Sarangi and Upasana Singh Thakuri won Best Actress for Khusma. Deepak Raj Giri won Best Screenplay for Chhakka Panja 5, and the Nepal Bhasa film Ghalaya Wan was honoured among indigenous-language films.

These recent editions show the awards balancing festival-driven 'new wave' cinema (Shambhala) with popular commercial films, and continuing to spotlight indigenous-language productions. The prize money and special honours attached to the ceremony have also grown, with senior artists receiving Long Service (Dirgha Sadhana) recognition alongside the competitive winners.

The edition honouring films of 2082 BS was presented at a ceremony on 5 Jestha 2083 BS (around late May/early June 2026) at Shital Niwas. Naveen Chauhan's Oon ko Sweater (उनको स्वीटर) was named Best Film and won him Best Director, with the film taking three honours in total. Veteran actor and filmmaker Neer Shah won Best Actor for Paran, and Miruna Magar won Best Actress for Oon ko Sweater.

Other winners at this edition included recognition for the screenplay of Paran and for the music and cinematography associated with Koshedulung. The jury panel was chaired by Harihar Sharma, and the ceremony included a Long Service honour for the legendary comedian-actor Madan Krishna Shrestha, who received a cash prize alongside the recognition. Indigenous-language cinema was again highlighted, with the Limbu-language film Namchong and the Newari film Indira Dhime Maicha among the honoured titles.

As with previous years, the 2082 edition was reported by Nepali outlets under its film-year label while the ceremony itself fell in the following year, a recurring point of confusion in 'nepali film award 2025 winners' style searches. Readers should therefore match the specific film titles to confirm which edition a winners list refers to.

This page is intended as a cumulative reference to the National Film Awards' headline winners. Because the FDB has not always published a single consolidated historical list, entries here are compiled from the Film Development Board's own notices, Nepali and English media coverage (including NepalNews, OnlineKhabar, Ratopati and Rising Nepal), and the LensNepal awards database, cross-checked against Wikipedia where possible.

A few caveats apply. Spellings of names and film titles vary across Romanisations (for example Kismat/Kishmat, Lakhe/Lakhey, and Chhodi/Chodi), and some early editions have incomplete public records. Where a category winner could not be reliably verified for a given year, it has been omitted rather than guessed. The National Film Awards should also not be confused with other Nepali film honours such as critics' awards, the Nepal International Film Festival (NIFF), or the Nepal Cultural International Film Festival, which have their own separate winners.

For the most authoritative and up-to-date confirmation of any single year's results, the Film Development Board's official website (film.gov.np) and its press releases remain the primary source, supplemented by contemporaneous reporting from established Nepali media.