It turns out dancing with the Devil can lead to making Oscars history. Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman of color to be nominated and the first woman to win this category on Sunday night.
“It’s tricky because when you go up [onstage], you have so much to say, especially after 98 years of history, there’s so much in your head,” Arkapaw said during her Oscars backstage visit. “One thing I was going to say is that a lot of little girls that look like me will sleep well tonight because they’ll want to become cinematographers. Just being on stage and getting this award for a movie like [Sinners] will change so many girls’ lives because they’ll be inspired when they weren’t before.”
Going into the ceremony Sinners broke the record for having the 16 Oscars nominations the most in Academy history. In addition to Best Cinematography, the film walked away with Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, Best Original Score for Ludwig Göransson and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan.
“Ryan had women on this film that were heads of department. He gives us those opportunities to shine and be ourselves and work in a creative environment where we’re leading, strong and have power. He trusts us,” Arkapaw said about the collaboration on set. That’s a very important thing that doesn’t happen very often. He’s opened doors. So, I knew that if this was going to happen, it was going to happen with someone like him.”
