The 20th Genie Awards were held on January 30, 2000, by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, to honour films released in 1999. The ceremony aired live on CBC Television, and a post-event highlights show aired on Radio Canada.^[1]

Eyebrows were raised when the nominations were dominated by 21 foreign artists; the academy had eliminated an old ruling that prevented foreign talent in minority Canadian co-productions from being eligible for Genie awards. With 152 nominees in total, there was no imbalance, but the fact that the foreign-artist nominations dominated the performance categories bothered many, and raised questions about whether or not the Genies were fulfilling their role of recognizing Canadian achievement and promoting Canadian talent.^[1]

This year's awards ceremony, which was hosted by actor Patrick McKenna, was dominated by István Szabó's Sunshine, Atom Egoyan's Felicia's Journey and Jeremy Podeswa's The Five Senses.^[2][3]