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
Film Victoria of the Government to meet the present and future media needs of Victorians; to simplify access to film materials and to enlarge the benefits to be derived from the use of such materials. In 1997 the functions of "Film Victoria" were amalgamated with those of the "State Film Centre", to form "Cinemedia Corporation", under the "Cinemedia Corporation Act 1997". In 2001 the "Cinemedia Corporation" was abolished and "Film Victoria" and the "Australian Centre for the Moving Image" (ACMI) were established as separate statutory authorities. The functions of "Film Victoria" as set out in the "Film Act 2001", are: Film Victoria