Mrs Brown Cannes Film Festival and released in the United Kingdom on 5 September 1997. Dench was nominated for many awards for her performance, including the Academy Award for Best Actress, but lost to Helen Hunt for her role in "As Good as It Gets". Several screens of text giving some background are shown before a bust is shown flying over a palace wall and shattering into countless pieces. The film shows the story of a bereaved Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and her relationship with a Scottish servant, John Brown (Billy Connolly), and the subsequent uproar it provoked. Brown had been a
Queen Victoria Park backing. Mowat did not want the government to pay for land acquisition and development. A three-member committee was established in 1885, headed by Polish immigrant Sir Casimir Gzowski, who proposed a government-run park encompassing , to be free to the public. A follow-up report in 1887 warning of "general regret and disappointment" convinced Mowat to push through the "Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park Act" in March, 1887. Unsightly outbuildings were razed, grounds were cleaned up, and Queen Victoria Park was officially opened to the public on May 24, 1888, the birthday of Queen Victoria. Admittance to the new park was