Autumn Durald Arkapaw Makes Oscar History as First Woman, First Black Cinematographer to Win

When Autumn Durald Arkapaw walked to the microphone at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night to accept the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, she did not speak first. She looked out at the crowd, asked every woman in the room to stand, and waited until they did.

"I really want all the women in the room to stand up, because I feel like I don't get here without you guys," Arkapaw said. "I really, really, truly mean that. I have felt so much love from all of the women on this whole campaign."

The moment capped 98 years of Academy Awards history in which no woman had ever won the prize. Arkapaw, who shot Ryan Coogler's Sinners, became the first woman and the first Black person to take home the Oscar for Best Cinematography at the 98th Academy Awards. She is of Filipino and African American Creole descent, and had already made history before Sunday as the first woman of color ever nominated in the category.

Only three other women had previously been nominated for the award: Rachel Morrison in 2018 for Mudbound, Ari Wegner in 2022 for The Power of the Dog, and Mandy Walker in 2023 for Elvis. None of them won. Arkapaw, 46, who lives in Altadena with her husband, cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, beat out Dan Laustsen for Frankenstein, Darius Khondji for Marty Supreme, Michael Bauman for One Battle After Another, and Adolpho Veloso for Train Dreams. Many awards experts had predicted One Battle After Another would claim the cinematography prize; Sinners' win was considered an upset by some in the industry.

The technical scale behind the win was itself historic. According to the American Society of Cinematographers, Arkapaw was the first woman to shoot a feature film in IMAX 65mm, or on any 65mm film format. Sinners was also the first feature ever shot entirely in two different large formats simultaneously: Ultra Panavision 70 and IMAX. The film, set in 1930s Mississippi, is a Southern gothic genre-blend about vampires and blues music that Coogler designed around the cultural weight of Black art and the history of appropriation. One signature sequence has become the film's visual centerpiece: generations of Black musicians performing in a rural juke joint while the camera rises through a roof that is on fire.

Sinners earned 16 nominations at the 98th Academy Awards and left with four Oscars, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Original Screenplay, and Score. Arkapaw had previously collaborated with Coogler on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and also shot The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson, and Teen Spirit, starring Elle Fanning.

During her speech, she paused to acknowledge Coogler directly. "Whenever I say thank you to Ryan, he replies and says, 'No, thank you. Thank you for believing in me, and thank you for trusting me.' And that's the kind of guy who I get to make films with," Arkapaw said. "And he means it. He really, truly means it." As she took the stage, she had scanned the audience to find Coogler rushing to carry her young son from the back of the room to a seat closer to the front.

Backstage in the press room, the weight of the milestone surfaced plainly. Arkapaw acknowledged winning "after 98 years" and told reporters she had "so much to say" and "so much in your head." A California native raised in the Bay Area, she has family roots in Louisiana and Mississippi, a connection that deepened her attachment to the world Coogler built on screen.

Before the Oscars, Arkapaw had collected a number of critics awards for Sinners' cinematography and received nominations at the BAFTAs, the Critics Choice Awards, and the American Society of Cinematographers Awards. The Oscar was the one that had never existed for a woman in the category before. Now it has.