The 51st National Film Awards, presented by the Directorate of Film Festivals, is the organisation set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2003.

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; whereas award ceremony took place on 3 February 2005 and the awards were given away by then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

With the 51st National Film Awards, new category for Non-feature Film for Best Narration / Voice Over was introduced and awarded with 'Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus)'.

Awards were divided into feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema.

Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 51st National Film Awards, a Marathi film, Shwaas won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film; whereas three Bengali films, Abar Aranye, Bhalo Theko and Chokher Bali, along with a Hindi film, Koi... Mil Gaya won the maximum number of awards (3). Following were the awards given in each category:

A committee headed by Basu Chatterjee was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. Following were the jury members:

Following were the awards given:

Official Name: Swarna Kamal