"Nickel Boys" is one of the films that may win this year's Best Picture award at Hollywood's biggest night on Sunday. However, to St. Petersburg resident Charles Robert Lynn, it's no movie. It was his reality. "Money cannot compensate us for what we went through," Lynn said. "It will not erase the memories. It will not erase the pain and suffering that you went through." The film is based on the atrocities that went on at the Dozier School for Boys in Florida. Boys and teenagers were sent for offenses that hardly require jail time today, such as smoking or skipping school. However, the punishment led to beatings, sexual abuses and even death. The decades of abuses led to its closure in 2011, and state lawmakers voted last year to create a compensation program for some living survivors. Lynn, now 70 years old, was only 13 when he said his mother sent him to the reform school. Trauma for the abuses he endured affected him the rest of his life. MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/entertainment/events/oscars/academy-awards-oscars-dozier-school-for-boys/67-f1bcc47b-fb89-4409-849a-ee22e7e09b37