Judi Dench by now has one of the higher tallies of Oscar nominations, with eight, but in 1998, she was still a relative unknown to many Americans, having only just appeared in two James Bond films. But the year before she had earned raves for Mrs. Brown, for which she received her first nomination. She reteamed with that film’s director, John Madden, the following year for Shakespeare in Love, which means she played Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth back to back, and received nominations for both, despite only having eight minutes of screen time. Clearly the Academy was ready to reward the terrific actress; she won Best Supporting Actress, one of the film’s seven statuettes that year.

This article is part of a special year-long series of anecdotes, reflections and thoughts about the Academy Awards.