If you are a film fan, Autumn Durald Arkapaw is a name to remember this award season.
Ahead of this year’s BAFTAs and Oscars, the cinematographer has already made history for her stand-out work on Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror film.
She is the first woman of colour ever to be nominated for cinematography in the history of both awards, as well as being one of just a handful of women ever to have been nominated.
Her work on Sinners, filming in the stifling heat of the deep south, certainly meant she earned her place in this year’s competition.
Michael B Jordan as Smoke and as Stack in Sinners. Pic: Warner Bros
Lola Kirke as Joan, Jack O’Connell as Remmick and Peter Dreimanis as Bert. Pic: Warner Bros
“There was the humidity, the bugs,” she laughs. “I started wearing like the mesh over my head, but then they would get inside the mesh, and all over my face.”
Speaking to Sky News, she explained part of the job is “to put the camera in the best spot so it feels real”.
Which, in the case of Sinners, meant getting in the line of fire for quite a bit of blood.
“Because I operate the camera, [the] team covers you in plastic or tarp.”
But being in the thick of it, she says, makes a difference to the feel of a film.
“I’m essentially an audience member so if it feels real to me, then I know that you’re going to feel it too, that’s important.”
Autumn Durald Arkapaw arrives at the 98th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon earlier this month. Pic: AP
Autumn Durald Arkapaw at the Sinners premiere last year alongside her husband, Adam Arkapaw, who is also a cinematographer. Pic: AP
So how does it feel to have already made Oscar and BAFTA history?
“It means a lot to me because this came from Ryan – the opportunity itself – and he’s someone that advocates for women in film. All of our heads of department are women that are like sisters to me now.”
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If she wins for cinematography at this year’s Academy Awards, she will be the first ever woman to do so. Remarkably, it remains the only Oscar that’s never known a female winner.
She explains: “I do feel like it is a boys’ club, because there needs to be more opportunities.
“Women [cinematographers] have been out there, I know, because when I went to film school in 2009, there were 11 girls in my class of 28.
“They’re there but the doors haven’t been open… the opportunities haven’t been there.”
Arkapaw shooting Michael B. Jordan, who has a leading role in Sinners
She says one of the nicest aspects of being nominated has been being approached by young girls who are keen to follow her career path.
“I’m already a winner,” she says.
“When you start out as a filmmaker, you just want people to see your work and have them embrace it and I think that’s happening.”
Before adding: “I can only cross my fingers to see.”
