Meet the Filipino-American Cinematographer Who Made Oscar History
She is the first woman of color to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography.
Published on Feb 5, 2026
It’s Oscar season once again, and the spotlight is on Filipino-American cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who just made history as the first woman of color to earn a nomination for Best Cinematography at the 98th Academy Awards. She garnered a nod for her work on the critically acclaimed, vampire horror film Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan and directed by Ryan Coogler, whom she also worked with on Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Arkapaw, who is Filipino on her mother’s side and African American-Creole on her father’s side, also broke barriers as the first woman to shoot a film in Ultra Panavision and IMAX 65mm cameras, and the first cinematographer to shoot in IMAX-15-perf format using a KODAK EKTACHROME film for Sinners. It seems almost fated—she reveals toThe Hollywood Reporterthat her parents named her after her father's favorite movie, the John Ford Western Cheyenne Autumn, shot, fittingly, on 65 millimeter.
From Art History to Award-Winning Director of Photography
Born in California and raised in San Francisco, Arkapaw’s film roots started with photography. In an interview with The Talks, she shares that her grandparents on her mother’s side traveled a lot, and she grew up looking through albums filled with photos of their travels. This inspired her to explore photography in high school and to pursue a degree in Art History at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) so she could become a curator or secure an internship at Sotheby’s.
After attending a film genre course at LMU, however, Arkapaw realized she was interested in another career: to be a cinematographer. “I became kind of obsessed with the job. I started looking at film schools,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. In 2007, Arkapaw attended the American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory and pursued a master’s in cinematography.
While Sinners is her first Oscar nod, Arkapaw has already won various accolades for the film, including bagging Best Cinematography from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board Review. Her filmography is also diverse, from independent films like Palo Alto and The Last Showgirl to bigger studio projects like Marvel’s Loki, which earned her an Emmy nomination in 2022. She’s dabbled in music videos and worked with chart-topping musicians, including The Jonas Brothers, SZA, and even directed Rihanna’s music video for her song, Lift Me Up.
Raising the Bar for Female Cinematographers
The Best Cinematography category of the Academy Awards has long remained elusive to female cinematographers, let alone women of color. Besides Arkapaw, only three other women were for the award: Rachel Morrison for the war epic Mudbound in 2018; Ari Wegner for the Western romance The Power of Dog in 2021; and Mandy Walker for the biopic Elvis in 2022.
As the fourth woman to ever be nominated, and the first woman of color at that, Arkapaw considers this historical feat an honor. It’s mainly because after becoming interested in filmmaking, she found that there were very few female cinematographers in the industry. “I started looking up research on who shot my favorite films. And I couldn’t find a woman,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Finally, I looked at Blow, which is my favorite film from Ted Demme, and I saw Ellen Kuras’ name, and I was like: ‘Oh, well, there’s one. There can be more.’”
In Sinners, she remarks that all heads of the departments are women of color and have also been recognized by the Academy for their work on the film. “These are women that inspire me every day,” Arkapaw shares in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “Now being part of that group, I feel very honored, especially for a film like this.”
Filipino Cinematographers at the Oscars
Arkapaw’s Academy Award nomination marks a rare moment of Filipino representation, as she is just the second to be recognized in the category. Before her, Filipino-American cinematographer Matthew Libatique earned three Best Cinematography nods for his work on psychological thriller Black Swan (2010), romance musical A Star is Born (2018), and, most recently, romance biopic Maestro (2023).
Perhaps the fourth time's the charm. After all, Sinners has received a record-breaking 16 nominations for the 98th Academy Awards. With all its historical feats, a woman of color bagging the Best Cinematography award might just be the cherry on top.
The 98th Academy Awards will be held on March 15, 2026 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
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