# What is the best Judi Dench movie of all time?

> Seven decades of unstoppable craft — from Shakespearean ingénue to M, from Queen Victoria to the Dowager Countess's neighbor. Where does this most beloved of dames reach her peak?

*By YPB Team · Published April 10, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-judi-dench-movie-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Mrs Brown**
   A 1997 drama where Dench plays Queen Victoria, who forms a controversial close friendship with her Scottish servant John Brown in the years after Prince Albert's death.
2. **Shakespeare in Love**
   A 1998 romantic comedy where Dench plays Queen Elizabeth I in a memorable cameo that won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress despite only 8 minutes of screen time.
3. **Chocolat**
   A 2000 drama where Dench plays Armande Voizin, a spirited grandmother who befriends a chocolatier and indulges her appetites against her family's wishes.
4. **Iris**
   A 2001 biographical drama where Dench plays the older Iris Murdoch, the celebrated novelist in the grip of Alzheimer's disease.
5. **James Bond as M**
   The 1995–2012 James Bond film series where Dench plays M, the steely head of MI6 who becomes Bond's most complex relationship.
6. **Mrs Henderson Presents**
   A 2005 comedy-drama where Dench plays Mrs Laura Henderson, the eccentric widow who opens a London theatre featuring nude tableaux during the Blitz.
7. **Notes on a Scandal**
   A 2006 psychological thriller where Dench plays Barbara Covett, a lonely history teacher who manipulates a younger colleague's scandalous secret.
8. **The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel**
   A 2012 comedy-drama where Dench plays Evelyn Greenslade, a widow who moves to India after her husband's death and rediscovers her sense of purpose.
9. **Philomena**
   A 2013 drama where Dench plays Philomena Lee, an Irish woman searching for the son she was forced to give up for adoption five decades earlier.
10. **Pride**
   A 2014 British comedy-drama where Dench plays Cliff's mother, one of the Welsh mining community members who befriends a group of LGBT activists.
11. **Red Joan**
   A 2018 spy drama where Dench plays the older Joan Stanley, a British woman revealed to have been a Soviet spy who passed nuclear secrets during the Cold War.
12. **Belfast**
   A 2021 Kenneth Branagh semi-autobiographical film where Dench plays Granny, the warmhearted grandmother of a young boy navigating the Troubles in 1960s Northern Ireland.

Tags: movies, actors, judi dench