17th Genie Awards

The 17th Genie Awards were held on November 27, 1996, to honour films released in late 1995 and 1996.

They were the second Genie Award ceremony held in that year; the 16th Genie Awards were delayed from the fall of 1995 and took place in January 1996 instead.

For these awards, due to having only a one-hour time slot on CBC Television, the academy divided the ceremony shows into a taped portion and a live portion. The one hour Genie special featured the five Best Motion Picture nominees and actors, and included the winners of the taped pre-show. For the Quebec market, on the following evening, there was a 30-minute Genies special on Radio-Canada which focused on the year's winners. The awards were dominated by three films which had caused much excitement over the past year; David Cronenberg's Crash, John Greyson's Lilies and, from Robert Lepage, Le Polygraphe. Still, as expected, the ratings for these shows, which were hosted by actress Rebecca Jenkins and comedian Mark Farrell, were low.