Oscars 2017: Manchester by the Sea in Cape Ann

Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan filmed on location across the Cape Ann region of Massachusetts for Manchester by the Sea.

Author: Nick Goundry

Published: 20 Feb 2017

Manchester by the Sea

Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan filmed on location across the Cape Ann region of Massachusetts for Manchester by the Sea.

The story follows Casey Affleck’s janitor as he is forced to confront a past trauma in his small coastal home town.

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Manchester by the Sea was nominated for Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards.

“We shot this movie in Cape Ann from late February to early May,” said Lonergan. “It was very cold at first, but very beautiful. In Cape Ann you are never far from water.

“I loved being by the ocean and inlets all the time; I loved shooting on the boat, and in the marinas and dockyards and houses in Manchester, Gloucester and Beverly (towns in Cape Ann along Massachusetts’ North Shore).

"I loved that part even when we were in triple overtime and I wanted to go to bed and never get up again. Plus, the food was great.”

Massachusetts is regularly used as an east coast US filming location, partly because of the state’s 25% production credit. New England Studios is available near Boston as a filming base and shoots also adapt warehouse facilities for set building.

For more on filming in Massachusetts and for local contacts see our production guide.


Paul Feig’s recent Ghostbusters movie built a Times Square set on the site of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, and the same facility was used for set-building for Peter Berg’s film Patriots Day, telling the story of the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013.

Ben Affleck, brother of Manchester by the Sea actor Casey, recently filmed limited scenes in Boston for his Prohibition-era gangster movie Live by Night, although interiors were largely shot on Los Angeles sound stages.

Image: Claire Folger/Amazon Studios

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