Prix Iris for Best Actress

Québec Cinéma presents an annual award for Best Actress (French: Prix Iris de la meilleure interprétation dans un premier rôle féminin) to recognize the best in the Cinema of Quebec.

Until 2016, it was known as the Jutra Award for Best Actress in memory of influential Quebec film director Claude Jutra.^[1] Following the withdrawal of Jutra's name from the award, the 2016 award was presented under the name Québec Cinéma.^[1] The Prix Iris name was announced in October 2016.^[2]

Céline Bonnier received the most nominations in this category, five, and received two awards. Karine Vanasse became the first actress to win the award twice. Three non-Canadian actresses won the award in consecutive years: Lubna Azabal for Incendies, Vanessa Paradis for Café de Flore and Rachel Mwanza for War Witch (Rebelle), the latter becoming the first black actress to win the award. Ginette Reno is the only actress to receive two nominations for playing the same role in different films, namely It's Your Turn, Laura Cadieux (C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux) and Laura Cadieux II (Laura Cadieux...la suite).

Four actresses received nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress or Revelation of the Year in the same year:

• In 2005, Céline Bonnier was nominated for Best Actress for Machine Gun Molly (Monica la mitraille) and Best Supporting Actress for The Last Tunnel (Le dernier tunnel).
• In 2007, Bonnier achieved the same feat again, winning Best Actress for Deliver Me (Délivrez-moi) while receiving a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for A Sunday in Kigali (Un dimanche à Kigali).
• In 2017, Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez was nominated for Best Actress for Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves (Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n'ont fait que se creuser un tombeau) and Best Supporting Actress for Bad Seeds (Les mauvaises herbes).
• In 2022, Hélène Florent became the first person to win both awards during the same ceremony: Best Actress for Drunken Birds (Les oiseaux ivres) and Best Supporting Actress for Maria Chapdelaine.
• In 2024, Ariane Castellanos won both Best Actress and Revelation of the Year for Richelieu, becoming the first to win two awards for the same film.

1990s

Year	Actress	Film	Ref
1999 1st Jutra Awards
	Pascale Montpetit	Streetheart (Le cœur au poing)	[3]
	Sylvia Chang	The Red Violin (Le violon rouge)	[4]
	Charlotte Laurier	2 Seconds (2 secondes)
	Ginette Reno	It's Your Turn, Laura Cadieux (C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux)

2000s

Year	Actress	Film	Ref
2000 2nd Jutra Awards
	Karine Vanasse	Set Me Free (Emporte-moi)	[3]
	Ginette Reno	Laura Cadieux II (Laura Cadieux...la suite)	[5]
	Pierrette Robitaille	Laura Cadieux II (Laura Cadieux...la suite)
	Guylaine Tremblay	Matroni and Me (Matroni et moi)
2001 3rd Jutra Awards
	Marie-Josée Croze	Maelström	[3]
	Hélène Loiselle	The Bottle (La bouteille)	[6]
	Fanny Mallette	The Orphan Muses (Les muses orphelines)
	Louise Portal	Full Blast
2002 4th Jutra Awards
	Élise Guilbault	The Woman Who Drinks (La femme qui boit)	[3]
	Fanny Mallette	A Girl at the Window (Une jeune fille à la fenêtre)	[7]
	Isabel Richer	The Pig's Law (La loi du cochon)
	Catherine Trudeau	Tar Angel (L'ange de goudron)
2003 5th Jutra Awards
	Karine Vanasse	Séraphin: Heart of Stone (Séraphin: Un homme et son péché)	[3]
	Pascale Bussières	Chaos and Desire (La turbulence des fluides)	[8]
	Maude Guérin	The Collector (Le collectionneur)
	Marie-Chantal Perron	The Mysterious Miss C. (La mystérieuse Mademoiselle C.)
2004 6th Jutra Awards
	Marie-Josée Croze	The Barbarian Invasions (Les invasions barbares)	[3]
	Sylvie Drapeau	Juniper Tree (Le piège d'Issoudun)	[9]
	Micheline Lanctôt	How My Mother Gave Birth to Me During Menopause (Comment ma mère accoucha de moi durant sa ménopause)
	Ginette Reno	Mambo Italiano
2005 7th Jutra Awards
	Pascale Bussières	Bittersweet Memories (Ma vie en cinémascope)	[3]
	Isabelle Blais	Love and Magnets (Les aimants)	[10]
	Céline Bonnier	Machine Gun Molly (Monica la mitraille)
	Jacinthe Laguë	The Five of Us (Elles étaient cinq)
2006 8th Jutra Awards
	Élise Guilbault	The Novena (La neuvaine)	[3]
	Hélène Bourgeois Leclerc	Aurore	[11]
	Suzanne Clément	Audition (L'audition)
	Julie Le Breton	The Rocket (Maurice Richard)
2007 9th Jutra Awards
	Céline Bonnier	Deliver Me (Délivrez-moi)	[3]
	Fatou N'Diaye	A Sunday in Kigali (Un dimanche à Kigali)	[12]
	Danielle Proulx	Family History (Histoire de famille)
	Ginette Reno	A Family Secret (Le secret de ma mère)
2008 10th Jutra Awards
	Guylaine Tremblay	Summit Circle (Contre toute espérance)	[3]
	Sylvie Léonard	Days of Darkness (L'âge des ténèbres)	[13]
	Isabel Richer	The 3 L'il Pigs (Les 3 p'tits cochons)
	Karine Vanasse	My Daughter, My Angel (Ma fille, mon ange)
2009 11th Jutra Awards
	Isabelle Blais	Borderline	[3]
	Suzanne Clément	It's Not Me, I Swear! (C'est pas moi, je le jure!)	[14]
	Susan Sarandon	Emotional Arithmetic
	Guylaine Tremblay	Honey, I'm in Love (Le grand départ)

2010s

Year	Actress	Film	Ref
2010 12th Jutra Awards
	Anne Dorval	I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère)	[3]
	Céline Bonnier	Je me souviens	[15]
	Marie-Thérèse Fortin	Heat Wave (Les grandes chaleurs)
	Isabelle Guérard	Detour (Détour)
	Élise Guilbault	The Legacy (La donation)
2011 13th Jutra Awards
	Lubna Azabal	Incendies	[3]
	Suzanne Clément	Silence Lies (Tromper le silence)	[16]
	Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin	Incendies
	Évelyne Rompré	Twice a Woman (Deux fois une femme)
	Guylaine Tremblay	Mourning for Anna (Trois temps après la mort d'Anna)
2012 14th Jutra Awards
	Vanessa Paradis	Café de Flore	[3]
	Céline Bonnier	Coteau rouge	[17]
	Catherine De Léan	Nuit #1
	Julie Le Breton	A Life Begins (Une vie qui commence)
	Madeleine Péloquin	For the Love of God (Pour l'amour de Dieu)
2013 15th Jutra Awards
	Rachel Mwanza	War Witch (Rebelle)	[3]
	Micheline Bernard	Small Blind (La mise à l'aveugle)	[18]
	Marilyn Castonguay	L'Affaire Dumont
	Suzanne Clément	Laurence Anyways
	Dominique Quesnel	The Torrent (Le torrent)
2014 16th Jutra Awards
	Pierrette Robitaille	Vic and Flo Saw a Bear (Vic+Flo ont vu un ours)	[3]
	Chloé Bourgeois	Diego Star	[19]
	Line Castonguay	Triptych (Triptyque)
	Rose-Maïté Erkoreka	Louis Cyr (Louis Cyr: L'homme le plus fort du monde)
	Marie-Evelyne Lessard	Fair Sex (Les manèges humains)
2015 17th Jutra Awards
	Anne Dorval	Mommy	[3]
	Julianne Côté	You're Sleeping Nicole (Tu dors Nicole)	[20]
	Laurence Leboeuf	The Little Queen (La petite reine)
	Joëlle Paré-Beaulieu	What Are We Doing Here? (Qu'est-ce qu'on fait ici ?)
	Lise Roy	Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme)
2016 18th Quebec Cinema Awards
	Céline Bonnier	The Passion of Augustine (La passion d'Augustine)	[21]
	Laurence Leboeuf	Turbo Kid	[21]
	Fanny Mallette	Chorus
	Anna Mouglalis	Anna
	Hadas Yaron	Felix and Meira (Félix et Meira)
2017 19th Quebec Cinema Awards
	Mylène Mackay	Nelly	[22]
	Karina Aktouf	Montreal, White City (Montréal la blanche)	[23]
	Nathalie Baye	It's Only the End of the World (Juste la fin du monde)
	Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez	Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves (Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n'ont fait que se creuser un tombeau)
	Tatiana Maslany	Two Lovers and a Bear
2018 20th Quebec Cinema Awards
	Maude Guérin	Family First (Chien de garde)	[24]
	Charlotte Aubin	Isla Blanca	[25]
	Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin	Threesome (Le trip à trois)
	Denise Filiatrault	It's the Heart That Dies Last (C'est le cœur qui meurt en dernier)
	Élise Guilbault	A Place to Live (Pour vivre ici)
2019 21st Quebec Cinema Awards
	Debbie Lynch-White	La Bolduc	[26]
	Josée Deschênes	Ghost Town Anthology (Répertoire des villes disparues)	[27]
	Brigitte Poupart	Les Salopes, or the Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin (Les salopes ou le sucre naturel de la peau)
	Karelle Tremblay	The Fireflies Are Gone (La disparition des lucioles)
	Carla Turcotte	Sashinka

2020s

Year	Actress	Film	Ref
2020 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards
	Andrée Lachapelle	And the Birds Rained Down (Il pleuvait des oiseaux)	[28]
	Anne-Élisabeth Bossé	A Brother's Love (La femme de mon frère)	[29]
	Anne Dorval	14 Days, 12 Nights (14 jours 12 nuits)
	Léane Labrèche-Dor	Laughter (Le rire)
	Noémie O'Farrell	Fabulous (Fabuleuses)
2021 23rd Quebec Cinema Awards
	Émilie Bierre	Our Own (Les nôtres)	[30]
	Marie-Evelyne Lessard	The Decline (Jusqu'au déclin)	[31]
	Margaret Qualley	My Salinger Year
	Sarah Sutherland	Like a House on Fire
	Karelle Tremblay	Death of a Ladies' Man
2022 24th Quebec Cinema Awards
	Hélène Florent	Drunken Birds (Les oiseaux ivres)	[32]
	Nour Belkhiria	A Revision (Une révision)	[33]
	Émilie Bierre	The Guide to the Perfect Family (Le guide de la famille parfaite)
	Pascale Bussières	Bootlegger
	Danielle Fichaud	Aline
2023 25th Quebec Cinema Awards
	Kelly Depeault	Noemie Says Yes (Noémie dit oui)	[34]
	Larissa Corriveau	Viking	[35]
	Hélène Florent	A Respectable Woman (Une femme respectable)
	Léane Labrèche-Dor	My Mother's Men (Les hommes de ma mère)
	Sara Montpetit	Falcon Lake
2024 26th Quebec Cinema Awards
	Ariane Castellanos	Richelieu	[36]
	Sophie Desmarais	Days of Happiness (Les Jours heureux)	[37]
	Magalie Lépine-Blondeau	The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain)
	Mylène Mackay	Tell Me Why These Things Are So Beautiful (Dis-moi pourquoi ces choses sont si belles)
	Sara Montpetit	Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant)
	Nahéma Ricci	Hunting Daze (Jour de chasse)

Multiple wins and nominations

Multiple wins Wins Actress 2 Céline Bonnier Marie-Josée Croze Anne Dorval Élise Guilbault Karine Vanasse

Three or more nominations Nominations Actress 5 Céline Bonnier 4 Suzanne Clément Élise Guilbault Ginette Reno Guylaine Tremblay 3 Pascale Bussières Anne Dorval Fanny Mallette Karine Vanasse

Combined totals for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Revelation of the Year

Multiple wins Wins Actress 3 Céline Bonnier Sandrine Bisson 2 Émilie Bierre Isabelle Blais Pascale Bussières Ariane Castellanos Marie-Josée Croze Kelly Depeault Anne Dorval Hélène Florent Élise Guilbault Karine Vanasse

Three or more nominations Nominations Actress 12 Céline Bonnier 6 Suzanne Clément Guylaine Tremblay 5 Sandrine Bisson Élise Guilbault Fanny Mallette 4 Isabelle Blais Pascale Bussières Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin Anne Dorval Maude Guérin Micheline Lanctôt Danielle Proulx Ginette Reno Karine Vanasse 3 Émilie Bierre Marie Brassard Hélène Florent Julie Le Breton Laurence Leboeuf Sara Montpetit Louise Portal Pierrette Robitaille Sonia Vachon

See also

• Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress