History was made at the 2026 Oscars on Sunday night, as Sinners director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman and first Black nominee to win an Oscar for best cinematography.
“I really want all the women in the room to stand up,” Arkapaw said as she accepted her award, “because I [wouldn’t be] here without you guys.”
Durald Arkapaw, the daughter of a Filipina mother and a Black Creole father, is known for her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Last Showgirl. In shooting Sinners on 65mm film using a combination of IMAX 15-perf and Ultra Panavision 70 cameras, she became the first female director of photography to shoot a movie on large-format IMAX film.
Durald Arkapaw brought style as well as substance to the 2026 Oscars, appearing at the awards ceremony in a custom Thom Browne look consisting of a sheer silk shirt overlayed with a pleated corset, hobble skirt, and silk tie, layered under a tweed and silk overcoat. Her most sentimental accessory for the night, however, was all her own: a photo of her grandfather Guillermo Pagan Bautista, whom she has called “one of the biggest influences on my childhood and my family.”
Durald Arkapaw was also accompanied for the night by the 10-year-old son she shares with her husband Adam, who is also a cinematographer. As she told Harper’s Bazaar: “I wouldn’t have come without him—it’s important that he’s a part of this and that he can be here with me and see all the hard work that goes into making these films.”
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