Oscars: Casey Affleck Wins Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea

Casey Affleck won Best Actor at the 89th Annual Academy Awards for his heartbreaking performance in Manchester by the Sea.

In order to achieve the honor, Affleck had to beat outHacksaw Ridge's Andrew Garfield, La La Land's Ryan Gosling, Denzel Washington for Fences, and Viggo Mortensen for Captain Fantastic.

Picking Affleck for Best Actor was one of the easier choices to make on your pre-show Oscar ballot as the Boston actor has been cleaning up all award season. Washington was the only one able to pull off an upset, besting Affleck for Best Actor at the SAG awards last month. The win snaps a 12-year streak of the Best Actor winner at the SAG Awards going on to win the Oscar.

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"One of the first people who taught me how to act was Denzel Washington and I just met him for the first time tonight," Affleck said at the top of his speech. "I'm only here really because of all the talents and good will of so many people, they are impossible to name."

The actor went on to thank Manchester by the Sea writer and director Kenneth Lonergan, producer Matt Damon and the crew of the film. He also added a last minute thank you to his older brother Ben, whom he forgot to thank when he won the Golden Globe for the same category.

In Manchester by the Sea,Affleck plays Lee Chandler, a man called back to his hometown to take guardianship of his nephew after his older brother dies. The film documents Lee's struggles to put aside the grief of a previous trauma in order to be the surrogate father his nephew needs, though the reminders of his past are present everywhere in the small town.

Manchester by the Sea also picked up an Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay.