Arkapaw becomes first woman to win cinematography Oscar

Autumn Durald Arkapaw Becomes First Woman to Win Best Cinematography Oscar

Autumn Durald Arkapaw made history at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday night, becoming the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography for her work on Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” The Filipino-American cinematographer, who was already the first woman of color nominated in the category, defeated frontrunner Michael Bauman, who had swept the precursor awards for “One Battle After Another.”variety

A Historic Breakthrough

In the 98-year history of the Academy Awards, no woman had ever won in the cinematography category. Only three women had previously been nominated: Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound” in 2018, Ari Wegner for “The Power of the Dog” in 2022, and Mandy Walker for “Elvis” in 2023. Arkapaw, of Filipino and Afro-Creole heritage, was the fourth woman and first woman of color to receive the nomination.inquirer

The win came as a surprise to many awards prognosticators. Bauman had taken home both the BAFTA and the American Society of Cinematographers Award for his VistaVision-shot work on Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” making him the presumed favorite heading into Oscar night.theasc

Shooting “Sinners” on the Grandest Scale

For “Sinners,” Coogler’s vampire blues saga set in 1930s Mississippi, Arkapaw employed a dual-format approach using 65mm IMAX and Panavision 70mm film, becoming the first woman to shoot a feature on large-format IMAX. She often handled the 65-pound IMAX camera herself alongside Coogler, who stayed so close during shoots that she occasionally had to nudge him out of the frame.nytimes

Arkapaw drew visual inspiration from Eudora Welty’s 1930s photographs shot on Kodachrome slides to create the film’s saturated, textured look, and used the same IMAX lenses that Christopher Nolan employed on “Oppenheimer.” “It was very ambitious,” Arkapaw told ABC News ahead of the ceremony. “But for all the right reasons, like ambitious for our ancestors, ambitious for people that look like us.”abcnews

A Record-Setting Night for “Sinners”

“Sinners,” which earned a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations — the most for any single film in Academy history — had already claimed the Best Original Screenplay award for Coogler earlier in the evening. Arkapaw’s second collaboration with Coogler after “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” the film follows twin brothers played by Michael B. Jordan who open a juke joint in the Jim Crow South before encountering vampires.people

“I feel like I really want change for ladies and it’ll come in time,” Arkapaw said in an interview before the ceremony. Rachel Morrison, the first woman nominated in the category and the person who recommended Arkapaw to Coogler, described her as someone who “was collaborative yet had her own perspective” and would “honor his vision and protect it with passion.”abcnews