With her win for best cinematography for “Sinners,” Autumn Durald Arkapaw has made Oscar history as the first woman, and first woman of color, to win that category.
After citing predecessors like Ellen Kuras and Rachel Morrison, Durald Arkapaw said, “I’m so honored to be here and I really want all the women in the room to stand up because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys.”
She had already set a record as the first woman of color to be nominated for the prize, and in an interview last month, Durald Arkapaw told us, “I’ve always wanted to make big movies.” Still, an expensive original story like “Sinners,” with bravura scenes like this one set in a juke joint, wasn’t an easy sell in Hollywood. “We don’t see movies made like this, by people that look like us, with this format,” she said, adding, “We all had a lot on the line.”
What also made the production risky was the choice she and the director Ryan Coogler made to film “Sinners” in IMAX and Ultra Panavision 70. Durald Arkapaw is the first woman to shoot a film in large-format IMAX — and she mostly operated the 65-pound camera herself.
Like Coogler, Durald Arkapaw grew up in the Bay Area. Her mother is Filipino, and her father is of Black Creole descent, with roots in New Orleans and Mississippi, where “Sinners” is set. A paternal aunt even served as an extra, and Durald Arkapaw said she felt the weight of family history when they were filming in the South: “You think about your ancestors and what they felt like on that land.” Read more.
Melena Ryzik is a roving culture reporter at The Times, covering the personalities, projects and ideas that drive the creative world.
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