Canada's Genie Awards wereevenly distributed across the nominees, with no film dominating the majorprizes which were handed out last night. Atom Egoyan's Ararat, nominated for nine awards, was the leader in thefinal tally, with five statuettes including Best Picture and Best Actress forArsinee Khanjian. Director Atom Egoyan was not nominated although as one of thefilm's producers he does receive a statuette. Egoyan was not there to accept itas he is presiding over the international jury at the Berlin Film Festival.

David Cronenberg won theaward for Best Direction for Spider but he was the only winner out of the film's six nominations. On thatscore, many observers are still scratching their heads over the Genies'nomination process given that Spider itself was not nominated nor were its two lead performances, those ofRalph Fiennes and Miranda Richardson, both widely regarded as superlative.

Quebecois film SavageMessiah, which has not been releasedtheatrically in English Canada but has screened on pay-TV in anEnglish-language format, won three prizes: Best Actor for Luc Picard, BestSupporting Actress for Pascale Montpetit and Best Adapted Screenplay for SharonRiis. Deepa Mehta's Bollywood/Hollywood, which had five nominations, including Best Picture, received oneprize, Best Original Screenplay for Mehta.

Actress Sarah Polley won theprize for Best Live Action Short Drama for her short film I Shout Love.

The presentation wasunremarkable except for a brief interruption by a short filmmaker who leaptonstage and demanded, with inimitable Canadian politeness, that the otherlive-action short nominees be acknowledged.

Genie Award Winners

Best Motion Picture Ararat,Robert Lantos, Atom Egoyan

Achievement in Direction Spider, David Cronenberg

Performance by an Actor in aLeading Role Savage Messiah, LucPicard

Performance by an Actress ina Leading Role Ararat, ArsineeKhanjian

Performance by an Actor in aSupporting Role Ararat, EliasKoteas

Performance by an Actress ina Supporting Role Savage Messiah, Pascale Montpetit

Best Original Screenplay - Bollywood/Hollywood,Deepa Mehta

Best Adapted Screenplay - SavageMessiah, Sharon Riis

Achievement inCinematography Perfect Pie,Paul Sarossy

Achievement in Editing - SuddenlyNaked , Lara Mazur

Achievement in ArtDirection/Production Design Almost America, Francois Seguin

Achievement in CostumeDesign Ararat, Beth Pasternak,

Achievement in Music -Original Score Ararat, MychaelDanna

Achievement in Music -Original Song - Saint Monica, "ComEstas Asas" Carlos Lopes

Achievement in Overall Sound- Between Strangers, Tom Hidderley,Todd Beckett, Keith Elliott, Mark Zsifkovitz

Achievement in Sound Editing Max, Fred Brennan, RoderickDeogrades, Barry Gilmore, Goro Koyama, Andy Malcolm, David McCallum, JaneTattersall

Best Documentary Gambling,Gods, And LSD, Peter Mettler

Best Live Action Short Drama I Shout Love, Meredith Kaplan,Sarah Polley, Jennifer Weiss

Best Animated Short TheHungry Squid, Marcy Page, JohnWeldon

Claude Jutra Award Flower& Garnet, Keith Behrman

Golden Reel Award LesBoys III, Christian Larouche,Richard Goudreau