A movie filmed almost entirely on location in Kent is in the running to scoop a prestigious Academy Award tonight.

The 95th Academy Awards take place in Los Angeles tonight, with the likes of Top Gun: Maverick and Everything Everywhere All At Once battling it out to be crowned Best Picture.

But fingers across the county will be kept crossed that Empire of Light - the Sam Mendes-directed film shot in and around Thanet - picks up one of the celebrated Oscar statues.

Shot predominantly in and around Margate's Dreamland, a host of locations in the area were used - including the Manston Airport site which doubled up as a hospital.

While the film itself failed to spark the delight of critics, it was highly praised for its cinematography.

And that has led to Roger Deakins, 73, picking up the 16th Oscar nomination of his illustrious career.

He was the man responsible for installing the string of lights along the promenade in Margate - a device used to light up the outside during night shooting.

The lights - which were embraced by residents - were erected and strung along the entire promenade - stretching from the Nayland Rock Hotel to the Turner Contemporary.

Explains the film's production designer, Mark Tildesley: "We took down all of the neon Dreamland lettering and replaced it with our own, and we rebuilt the front façade – they call it the canopy. Then, Roger was wondering how on Earth we were going to light these night scenes, so at his instruction, we installed festoon lights along the entire seafront.”

Added Deakins, whose previous nominations include work on the likes of The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo and Skyfall and include wins for Blade Runner 2049 and war epic 2017: “Margate brought a reality to this movie."

Despite nominations for the movie's star - Olivia Colman - in the Golden Globes earlier this year, she and co-star Michael Ward missed out on Oscar nominations.

Other films in the Best Cinematography category include All Quiet on the Western Front, Elvis, Tar and Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.