9th Genie Awards

The 9th annual Genie Awards were held March 22, 1988, and honoured Canadian films released in 1987. The ceremony, which was broadcast live on CBC Television, was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and co-hosted by actors Megan Follows and Gordon Pinsent.

This was the year in which, for the first time, all of the Best Motion Picture nominees had been written by their directors. 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.

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. Sheila McCarthy, in her acceptance speech for Best Actress, quipped that "I'm really glad there are no nominations for actresses for Night Zoo." 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.

The Special Achievement award was presented to Norman Jewison, for his work in establishing the Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies.