It was disappointment at the Academy Awards for Maidstone's very own Oscar-nominated sound designer.

Julian Slater's work on Baby Driver was up for the best sound editing and best sound mixing awards at the glittering ceremony last night, where he rubbed shoulders with A-List film stars.

The Boughton Monchelsea-born sound designer teamed up with Edgar Wright once more to edit the film's soundtrack, having already worked with him on the likes of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Mr Slater's role in production was to mix the high-octane sound effects with the film's highly-praised soundtrack.

With a career stretching back more than 20 years, Mr Slater has previously worked on Oscar winners Mad Max: Fury Road and The Danish Girl.

This was his first Academy Award nomination, but the father-of-two ultimately lost out to Dunkirk in both categories.

The 46-year-old, who lived in Halstead in Sevenoaks for three years until 2013, had already been defeated by the Second World War thriller at last month's Bafta's.

Following his nomination, Mr Slater said: "I’m not too sure what’s next for me. I’m actually taking a little timeout as between Baby Driver and Jumanji the past 18 months have been a little hectic."

But it was good news for Darkest Hour - which was partly filmed at Chartwell near Westerham and Fort Amherst in Chatham - whose star Gary Oldman took the best actor accolade.

---

And the winners are...

Best picture

The Shape of Water

Best actress

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best actor

Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

Best director

Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water

Best supporting actress

Allison Janney, I, Tonya

Best supporting actor

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best original song

Remember Me by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez from Coco

Best original score

Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water

Best cinematography

Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049

Best original screenplay

Jordan Peele, Get Out

Best adapted screenplay

James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name

Best live action short film

The Silent Child

Best documentary short subject

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405

Best film editing

Lee Smith, Dunkirk

Best visual effects

John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover, Blade Runner 2049

Best animated feature film

Coco

Best animated short film

Dear Basketball

Best foreign language film

A Fantastic Woman, Chile

Best production design

Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau, Jeffrey Melvin, The Shape of Water

Best sound editing

Richard King and Alex Gibson, Dunkirk

Best sound mixing

Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo, Dunkirk

Best documentary feature

Icarus

Best costume design

Mark Bridges, Phantom Thread

Best makeup and hairstyling

Kazuhiro Tsuji, Lucy Sibbick and David Malinowski, Darkest Hour