The Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director is a national film award. For the greater objective of recognising the talent of the Indian debutant director, this award is presented. This award is given in cash to a feature film production after the judgement of the best debut film of an Indian director by jury of the national film awards. In the year 1981 director Utpalendu Chakraborty won this award for the first time for his Bengali debut film, Maina Tadanta.

Following is a list of the winners of the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director

2007	1. Kabul Express	Kabir Khan	Hindi
	2. Ekantham	Madhu Kaithapuram	Malayalam
2006	Parineeta	Pradeep Sarkar	Hindi
2005	Grahanam	Mohan Krishna Indraganti	Telugu
2004	Margam	Rajiv Vijaya Raghavan	Malayalam
2003	1. Patal Ghar	Abhijit Chaudhary	Bengali
	2. Prohor	Subhadro Chaudhary	Bengali
2002	Thiladaanam	K.N.T. Sastry	Telugu
2001	Sayahnam	R. Sarath	Malayalam
2000	1. Laado	Aswini Chowdhary	Haryanvi
	2. Dollar Dreams	Shekhar Kammula	English
1999	Daya	Venu	Malayalam
1998	Bhoothakkannadi	A. K. Lohitha Das	Malayalam
1997	Rag Birag	Bindhu Chakraborthy	Assamese
1996	Kahini	Malaya Bhattacharya	Bengali
1995	Moghamull	G. Rajasekharan	Tamil
1994	Sunya Theke Suru	Ashok Viswanathan	Bengali
1993	Mrs. Beatty`s Children	Pamela Rooks	English
1992	Haldhaar	Sanjeev Hazarika	Assamese
1991	Perumthachan	Ajayan	Malayalam
1990	Wosobipo	Gautam Bora	Karbi
1989	Thrishagni	Nabayendu Ghosh	Hindi
1988	Ekti Jiban	Raja Mitra	Bengali
1987	Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin	Sudhir Mishra	Hindi
1986	New Delhi Times	Romesh Sharma	Hindi
1985	Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai	Prathap Pothan	Tamil
1984	Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron	Kundan Shah	Hindi
1983	Kann Sivanthaal Mann Sivakkum	Sridhar Rajan	Tamil
1982	Aadhar Sila	Ashok Ahuja	Hindi
1981	Maina Tadanta	Utpalendu Chakraborthy	Bengali