The bright lights of Hollywood may seem a world away from sunny Kent, but as the glittering 2021 Oscars ceremony takes place tonight, the county can claim some links to the films and actors nominated.

The 93rd Academy Awards will take place today in the US - airing live on ABC at 8pm, with the red carpet kicking off around 11.30pm for viewers in the UK - with organisers declaring there will be no Zoom element to the ceremony, though many other details have not yet been revealed.

Among the big names waiting to hear if they take home one of the iconic gold statues is actor Gary Oldman, who spent some of his teenage years living in the county.

He is nominated for his role in Mank, as the Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz.

The 59-year-old lived in Stanhope during his teenage years and went to the Duncan Bowen Secondary School, now The John Wallis Academy.

He already has one Oscar in his bathroom, as in 2018, he won Best Actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill, which was partly filmed at Churchill's family home in Chartwell, Sevenoaks. Some scenes were also filmed at Fort Amherst in Chatham.

He and another actor with Ashford connections, Sir Mark Rylance, have both won Academy Awards before.

Ashford-born Rylance, who last won a supporting actor BAFTA in 2016 for his role in Bridge of Spies alongside Tom Hanks, may not be in the running for an award, but his film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, features in a number of categories.

The legal drama set in 1968 sees Rylance, who moved from Ashford to America as a child, play the lawyer who defended the Chicago 7, William Kunstler.

Sacha Baron Cohen is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as social activist Abbie Hoffman in the film. Its cinematography by Phedon Papamichael is also in the running and the film is also up for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Olivia Colman has also scored an Oscar nod for her supporting role in The Father. In 2019, she won best Actress for her role in The Favourite, which was partly filmed at Knole Park in Sevenoaks.

The British star is nominated alongside Maria Bakalova for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy, Amanda Seyfried for Mank and Yuh-Jung Youn for Minari.

The past year has seen the arts and the film industry particularly hard hit by the pandemic.

Margate-based writer and director Yero Timi-Biu, who has worked on productions with the likes of the BFI, Sky and Channel 4, spoke to kmfm about how the pandemic has changed film-making.

For more entertainments news across Kent click here.

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