A movie filmed on the Kent coast has been nominated for an Academy Award.

Empire of Light - much of which was filmed in Margate last spring - received mixed reviews from audiences and critics alike when it landed in cinemas earlier this month.

But it has today been announced the Sam Mendes-directed movie, which is set in an English coastal town during the 1980s, will have the chance of securing an Oscar for its cinematography.

Dreamland was transformed into a cinema named the Empire for the picture, while other locations in the town, such as restaurant Wildes and Café Darcy, also featured.

The cinematographer, Roger Deakins, has already bagged two Academy Awards for his work on Blade Runner 2049 and 1917.

Mendes previously revealed that he was motivated to film in the Kent town because of its beauty.

Speaking to Visit Thanet, the director, who also helmed American Beauty and Skyfall, said: "I was drawn to this particular place because it offered so much opportunity in the scale of the visual landscape.

"It’s where JMW Turner painted most of his famous paintings – he went there because he said the skies were the finest in Europe."

Empire of Light will be pitted against Elvis, All Quiet on the Western Front, Tar and Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths for the gong on March 12.