01 Old Deuteronomy, a widely mocked but game motion-capture role in the musical adaptation.
Judi Dench – 10 Best Movies
By Vlad Zakh · June 24, 2026
United States Drama thought provoking
GoldenEye through Skyfall show how much authority she brought to M, a role that could have been a footnote. Shakespeare in Love won her an Oscar for about eight minutes on screen, and Philomena shows the quieter dramatic register.
01 
02 A steady grandmother anchoring a family through The Troubles.
03 A stubborn, ailing grandmother in a small French village charmed by mysterious chocolates.
04 A recently widowed woman starting over at a rundown Indian hotel.
05 An Oscar-nominated performance as Queen Victoria in the years after Prince Albert's death.
06 M's final, most personal chapter, tying her directly to Bond's past.
07 An Oscar-nominated turn as a manipulative, obsessive schoolteacher.
08 An Oscar-nominated performance as a mother searching for the son taken from her decades earlier.
09 M, the head of MI6, in a role she carried across seven Bond films.
10 An Oscar-winning performance as Queen Elizabeth I, delivered in just a few commanding minutes.
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