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Autumn Durald Arkapaw Made History Winning Best Cinematography at the 98th Academy Awards

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History was made across different categories at the 98th Academy Awards, held on March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, United States. The American horror film Sinners, for instance, had a record-breaking number of sixteen nominations. The record was previously held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016), which had fourteen nominations each. Sinners took home four awards: Michael B. Jordan as Best Actor, Ryan Coogler for Best Original Screenplay, Ludwig Göransson for Best Original Score, and Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Best Cinematography.These are all achievements worth celebrating, but Durald Arkapaw&#x27;s victory is especially remarkable because she is the first woman, woman of color, and Filipina to win Best Cinematography at the Oscars. <div> </div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-1" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DV7cAoaDZ4u/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=864&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A18673905.7%2C%22ls%22%3A933168.8000000007%2C%22le%22%3A933724.0999999978%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="926" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-1" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px" spellcheck="false"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div> </div>For her work in Sinners, Durald Arkapaw previously won Best Cinematography from award-giving bodies like the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Astra Film Awards, Austin Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics, Dublin Film Critics&#x27; Circle, Georgia Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, Phoenix Film Critics Society, San Francisco Film Critics, and Seattle Film Critics Society. &quot;Cinematography is the language of light and movement. It&#x27;s how a film breathes, how a moment becomes unforgettable. It&#x27;s what makes us feel, turning images into emotion and moments into memory. Tonight, we honor the storytellers who shaped the way we see a film,&quot; said award presenter <a href="https://metro.style/people/2026/3/12/demi-moore-opens-up-on-the-idea-of-perfect-amid-buzz-over-her-transformation-1445" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Demi Moore</a> before introducing the roster of nominees.Sinners&#x27; Autumn Durald Arkapaw was nominated alongside Dan Laustsen for Frankenstein, Darius Khondji for Marty Supreme, Michael Bauman for One Battle After Another, and Adolpho Veloso for Train Dreams.<div> </div><div style="text-align:center"><iframe width="925" height="525" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bKGxHflevuk?si=stkTt7TDXL6TT3Ds" title="YouTube video player" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div> </div>The award-winning, critically-acclaimed Sinners is produced, written, and directed by Ryan Coogler. In the film, set in 1932, identical twins and World War I veterans Elijah &quot;Smoke&quot; and Elias &quot;Stack&quot; Moore (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown in Clarksdale, Mississippi, coming from spending seven years in Chicago, where they were involved with the mafia. But one peaceful, music-filled night in their town turns into chaos when the music catches the attention of vampires, attacking everyone gathered in the club for the party.<div></div>Durald Arkapaw started her onstage moment at the 2026 Oscars by looking for her son, Aiden, in the audience, making sure he was there to share this special moment with her. She then went on to thank Ryan Coogler, saying, &quot;Whenever I say thank you to Ryan, he replies and says, &#x27;No, thank you. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for trusting me.&#x27; And that&#x27;s the kind of guy that I get to make films with. He&#x27;s a very, very honorable person, and he means it. And he really, truly means it.&quot; Durald Arkapaw and Coogler also worked together in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Her dossier as a cinematographer also includes movies Palo Alto (2013), One &amp; Two (2015), Untogether (2018), Teen Spirit (2018), The Sun Is Also a Star (2019), Mainstream (2020), and The Last Showgirl (2024).<div> </div><div style="text-align:center"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1773661916445Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first woman and woman of color to win Best Cinematography for her w.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Photo from @theacademy</div><div style="text-align:left"> </div>In the history of the Oscars, Durald Arkapaw is only the fourth woman to have been nominated for Best Cinematography. In her acceptance speech, she mentioned and honored the women who paved the way for her to land this opportunity. She mentioned Rachel Morrison, the first woman to receive the Best Cinematography nomination in 2018 for Mudbound. She credited Ellen Kuras, &quot;who&#x27;s also in this room today,&quot; she said. &quot;I&#x27;m so honored to be here, and I really want all the women in the room to stand up &#x27;cause I feel like I don&#x27;t get here without you, guys. I really, really, truly mean that,&quot; Durald Arkapaw continued, and this kind of standing ovation was especially fitting as Women&#x27;s Month is celebrated across the world. &quot;I have felt so much love from all the women on this whole campaign, and gotten to meet so many people. And I just feel like moments like this happen because of you, guys. And I want to thank you for that.&quot; Durald Arkapaw went on to thank her crew and Warner Bros. Pictures, which earned a total of 30 nominations at the 98th Academy Awards. Warner Bros. Pictures is also the film studio and distributor behind One Battle After Another (which was nominated in 12 categories and ultimately won six awards, including Best Picture and Best Casting) and Weapons (for which Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress).Her acceptance speech wouldn&#x27;t be complete without mentioning the cast of Sinners, led by Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld. &quot;These people are so beautiful, and I&#x27;m honored to be there photographing them,&quot; she said.Lastly, Durald Arkapaw thanked her husband, Adam, son Aiden, and her parents. &quot;Thank you so much. This is an honor. Thank you,&quot; she concluded.<div> </div><div style="text-align:center"><iframe width="925" height="525" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sViVXNm-KMo?si=nflALHY9wv8cixMv" title="YouTube video player" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> </div><div> </div>Later, in the press room, Durald Arkapaw was asked to share her thoughts on the impact she hopes her victory will create when it comes to representation for female cinematographers in a male-dominated industry. &quot;It&#x27;s tricky because when you go up there, you have so much to say, especially after 98 years. There&#x27;s like so much in your head, and you&#x27;re like, &#x27;Are they gonna kick me off when I say all this stuff?&#x27; And then no one is bringing up a piece of paper, so I tried to just have it all on my head. But one thing I was gonna say that I had written down was that a lot of little girls that looked like me will sleep really well tonight because they want to become cinematographers, and I know that. What I mean by that is just that, just being onstage, getting this award for a movie like that, will change so many girls&#x27; lives because they&#x27;ll be inspired when they weren&#x27;t before.&quot;She expounded on this answer when asked what she hopes her journey will show young female filmmakers. She quoted what she once heard singer-songwriter Karen O say at a concert: &quot;You have to see you to be you.&quot; Once again, Durald Arkapaw acknowledged Coogler, saying, &quot;Ryan gives us, the women on this film that are heads of department, he gives us those opportunities to shine and be ourselves and work in a creative environment where we&#x27;re leading, we&#x27;re strong. You know, we have power. He trusts us, and that&#x27;s a very important thing. It doesn&#x27;t happen very often, so he&#x27;s open those doors.&quot; Lastly, a member of the press asked her to describe what it felt like standing onstage to receive the award, with the women in the audience standing, too, to show their support for her. &quot;I just wanted to say thank you to all the women in the room because moments like this don&#x27;t happen without women kind of standing up for you and advocating for you,&quot; she shared. Knowing that this singular moment is a culmination of the multiple feats women before her have achieved, Durald Arkapaw concluded her press room speech with this statement: &quot;This isn&#x27;t about me anymore. This is about so much more, and I know that. I wanted it for all the ladies in the room, and I wanted it for all the girls at home. So, it happened, and I&#x27;m so happy for that because I want to give that to them.&quot;<div> </div>Lead photos from @theacademy

The historic win of Filipino-American cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw hits differently, especially this Women's Month.

The historic win of Filipino-American cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw hits differently, especially this Women's Month.

What Her Historic Win at the Oscars 2026 Truly Means for Autumn Durald Arkapaw

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What Her Historic Win at the Oscars 2026 Truly Means for Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Grace Libero

Published Mar 16, 2026 09:15 PM PHT

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Updated Mar 16, 2026 10:05 PM PHT

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