The J. C. Daniel Award is the highest award in Malayalam cinema, established by the Government of Kerala, India. It is presented annually by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, a non-profit institution operating under the Department of Cultural Affairs, Kerala. Instituted in 1992, the award recognizes individuals for their "outstanding contributions to Malayalam cinema". Recipients are selected by a jury appointed by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and the Department of Cultural Affairs. As of 2021, the honourees receive a statuette, a citation, and a cash prize of ₹500,000 (US$6,000). They are honoured at the Kerala State Film Awards ceremony.

The Government of Kerala created the award to commemorate the contribution of Indian filmmaker J. C. Daniel, who is often regarded as the "father of Malayalam cinema". The J. C. Daniel Award was managed by the Department of Cultural Affairs until 1997. In 1998, the Government of Kerala constituted the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, and since that year, the Academy has hosted the award. A cash prize of ₹50,000 (US$600) was granted with the award until 2002. In 2003, the prize money was doubled and, as part of a technical correction to update it, no award was presented that year. Actor Madhu was the first recipient of the award with the increased monetary prize of ₹100,000 (US$1,200) in 2004. Since 2016, the cash prize is ₹500,000 (US$6,000).

its inception, the J. C. Daniel Award has been bestowed on 30 individuals. The award was first presented to film distributor and producer T. E. Vasudevan in 1992. Actress Aranmula Ponnamma was the first woman to receive the honour, in 2005. The 2011 recipient, actor Jose Prakash, died before the award ceremony. His son accepted the award on his behalf. The most recent winner is filmmaker T. V. Chandran.

List of award recipients

Year	Image	Recipient	Field of work	Ref.
1992	–	T. E. Vasudevan	Distributor, producer
1993	–	Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair	Actor, director, screenwriter, lyricist
1994	–	P. Bhaskaran	Lyricist, director
1995	–	Abhayadev	Lyricist
1996	–	A. Vincent	Cinematographer, director
1997		K. Raghavan	Composer
1998		V. Dakshinamoorthy	Composer
1999		G. Devarajan	Composer
2000	–	M. Krishnan Nair	Director
2001	–	P. N. Menon	Director, art director
2002		K. J. Yesudas	Playback singer
2003	No award
2004		Madhu	Actor, director, producer
2005	–	Aranmula Ponnamma	Actress
2006	–	Mankada Ravi Varma	Cinematographer, director
2007	–	P. Ramdas	Director
2008		K. Ravindran Nair	Producer
2009	–	K. S. Sethumadhavan	Director, screenwriter
2010	–	Navodaya Appachan	Producer, director
2011	–	Jose Prakash	Actor, singer
2012	–	J. Sasikumar	Director
2013		M. T. Vasudevan Nair	Screenwriter, director
2014		I. V. Sasi	Director, screenwriter
2015		K. G. George	Screenwriter, director
2016		Adoor Gopalakrishnan	Director, screenwriter
2017		Sreekumaran Thampi	Lyricist, director, screenwriter, producer
2018		Sheela	Actress, director, screenwriter
2019		Hariharan	Director
2020		P. Jayachandran	Singer
2021	–	K. P. Kumaran	Director
2022		T. V. Chandran	Director

• Dadasaheb Phalke Award

• Official website for Kerala State Chalachithra Academy Archived 29 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• Official website for Department of Cultural Affairs Archived 5 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine