03/17/2026
So excited about this!
Congratulations to cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who has just become the first woman in 97 years of the Academy Awards to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography! During her acceptance speech, Arkapaw, who was honored for her work on the film "Sinners," asked every woman in the Dolby Theatre to stand up. "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 said. "I really, really, truly mean that. I have felt so much love from all of the women on this whole campaign."
Arkapaw -- who is also the first Black and first Filipino American to win the award -- knows what her win means. Best Cinematography was the last Oscar category -- outside the gendered acting races -- to ever nominate a woman. That didn't happen until 2018. In the entire history of the award, only three women had ever been nominated before Arkapaw. As of 2025, women made up just 7 percent of cinematographers working on Hollywood's top 250 films -- the lowest percentage of any role tracked.
"A lot of little girls that look like me will sleep really well tonight," she said backstage. "Because they'll want to become cinematographers. And I know that. Just being on stage, getting this award for a movie like that, will change so many girls' lives because they'll be inspired. And they weren't before."
Arkapaw, who is of Filipino descent on her mother's side and African American Creole on her father's, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, raised by a single mom and her mother's extended Filipino family. She didn't know anyone in the film industry. She studied art history at Loyola Marymount, worked in advertising, and shot short films on weekends with a camcorder before earning her MFA in cinematography from the AFI Conservatory.
She built her career through indie films -- her first feature was Gia Coppola's "Palo Alto" in 2013 -- and music videos for artists like Arcade Fire, The Weeknd, and Rihanna. She shot the first season of "Loki" for Marvel, earning an Emmy nomination, then joined Ryan Coogler for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" after fellow cinematographer Rachel Morrison -- who couldn't return -- recommended her. That recommendation changed everything. "If this was going to happen," Arkapaw said backstage tonight, "it was going to happen with someone like him."
"Sinners," set in 1930s Mississippi, follows twin brothers played by Michael B. Jordan who open a juke joint only to face down bloodthirsty vampires -- a genre-bending epic about Black art, cultural survival, and the things that endure. Arkapaw made it the first film ever shot entirely in both Ultra Panavision 70 and IMAX 65mm -- the first time a woman had shot on either large format.
The film's 16 Oscar nominations broke the all-time record, and it took home four awards tonight: Best Actor for Jordan, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score for Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, and Best Cinematography for Arkapaw. "This isn't about me anymore," she said. "This is about so much more."
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To inspire Mighty Girls who dream of being filmmakers someday, we recommend these books about female directors and filmmakers: "Lights! Camera! Alice! The Thrilling True Adventures of the First Woman Filmmaker" for ages 5 to 9 (https://www.amightygirl.com/lights-camera-alice) and "Out of the Shadows: How Lotte Reiniger Made the First Animated Fairytale Movie" for ages 6 to 9 (https://www.amightygirl.com/out-of-the-shadows)
Teens will love reading about movie pioneers in "Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors" for ages 13 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/film-makers
For books for children and teens about pioneering Black women in a variety of fields, visit our blog post "99 Books about Extraordinary Black Mighty Girls and Women" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14276
For a wide selection of books for children and teens about trailblazing girls and women throughout history, visit our "Role Models Biography" book section at https://www.amightygirl.com/books/history-biography/biography
Thanks to NBC News for sharing this image!
