This was the year in which, for the first time, all of the Best Motion Picture nominees had been written by their directors.[citation needed] The awards were dominated by Jean-Claude Lauzon's Night Zoo (Un zoo la nuit) which garnered 14 nominations and won an unmatched thirteen awards.[3][4]
The other star of the night was Patricia Rozema's I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, which won in both of the female acting categories and was the only other narrative feature film besides Night Zoo to win any awards.[5]Sheila McCarthy, in her acceptance speech for Best Actress, quipped that "I'm really glad there are no nominations for actresses for Night Zoo."[6] McCarthy, who had just given birth to a daughter a few weeks earlier, was also presented with a miniaturized toy Genie statuette for her baby.[5]
Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Note: Awards by year articles are listed here by the year of eligibility for nomination; due to variable scheduling of the ceremonies, this is not always the same year in which the awards were presented.