3rd National Film Awards Film in a particular language. Certificate of Merit in all the categories is discontinued over the years. Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 3rd National Film Awards, "Pather Panchali", a Bengali film by a debutant director Satyajit Ray won the President's Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film. Following were the awards given: For 3rd National Film Awards, none of the films were awarded from Children's films category as no film was found to be suitable. With 3rd National Film Awards, new award category was introduced for the feature films made
Calcutta Film Society European films. The society also started a bulletin designed by Ray, and several of his article were later published in the book, "Our Films, Their Films" (1972). Noted film personalities were invited to speak at the society which they did on several occasions, including Russian actor, Nikolay Cherkasov, directors Jean Renoir, John Huston. Ray later recounted his meeting with Renoir as an important turning point in shaping his cinematic vision of his first film, "Pather Panchali" which he explained to Renoir when he was visiting India to look for locations for his film "The River", in which Ray assisted Renoir.