The ceremony was the first to be held since Québec Cinéma dropped the "Jutra Awards" name from its awards program, following the publication in February 2016 of allegations that namesake director Claude Jutra had been a pedophile.[4] The organization established a committee to determine a new permanent name for the awards, which announced the new Prix Iris name in October 2016.
Winners at the 2016 ceremony received a new wooden statue, replacing the previous trophy created by Charles Daudelin. The new trophy was created by Montreal's Nouveau Studio; it is made of solid maple, painted white, with gold and acrylic leaves. With only three weeks to design and produce the new statue following the renaming of the award, it would not have been possible to cast the trophies out of bronze.[5]
Corbo, Elephant Song and Our Loved Ones (Les êtres chers) were nominated for ten, nine and seven awards respectively, but lost all of their nominations. Additionally, Elephant Song tied the record for the film with the most nominations without being nominated for Best Film, joining Babine and The Master Key (Grande Ourse: la clé des possibles).
