Autumn Durald Arkapaw: 5 things about the Fil-Am filmmaker who became the 1st woman to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography  

Autumn Dural Arkapaw made history on Monday (Philippine time) when she became the first woman to win the Oscar trophy for Best Cinematography for her work in Ryan Coogler film "Sinners."

Incidentally, Autumn also because the first woman of color to win the award. She is of Filipino descent.

Her mother hails from Pampanga, while her father is African-American Creole.

During Oscar night, in her beautiful Thom Browne outfit, the 47-year-old Fil-Am dedicated her trophy to her 10-year-old son Aidan, her cinematographer husband Adam, and her parents.

Below are a few things to know about Autumn, who is currently the talk of Internet town following her historic win. 

1. She was raised by her Filipino fam

In a previous interview with GMA News Online, Autumn said her parents broke up when she was really young. "So it was my mom's side of the family who raised me. I spent more time around my Filipino side," she said.

Autumn is an only child and her mother, Peggy Bautista, was a working mom. "So she would always drop me off my auntie's house, who I call Mama Lyn. She's like my second mom, and her daughters are like my sisters," she said.

Autumn also shared she has a close relationship with her grandfather, Guillermo, who hails from Masantol, Pampanga. Her grandmother meanwhile is from Luzon.

She's never been to the Philippines "but it was a big part of my upbringing," she said.

2. Life before film

According to the New York Times, Autumn studied Art History in college and then fell in love with filmmaking.

Vogue Philippines said Autumn held a "corporate desk job at AOL Time Warner selling banner ads for websites" before she finally enrolled in the American Film Institute from where she graduated in 2010.

From there, she went from student projects to indie films, then TVs, and finally, the Marvel Series.

3. Autumn and MVs

 She is credited as the Director of Photography in the MV of the 2019 song "Power is Power" by SZA, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott.

She also got the director credit for Rihanna's 2022 hit "Lift Me Up" from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

4. Breaking into a male-dominated industry 

On BBC Woman's Hour, Autumn traced back how she was able to plant her roots in such a male-dominated industry. 

"I did my homework," she began. Autumn looked at her favorite movies and realized the cinematographers were "mostly men." 

"I finally looked up 'Blow' and the cinematographer was Ellen Kuras. When I saw her name, I thought 'there's one. There could be more'," Autumn said.

It was really encouraging for Autumn. "I think for us, when you see one woman out there, or you see yourself in someone else, that is enough to give you determination to succeed," she said.

 

 

 

 

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5. Breaking glass ceilings

Before becoming the first woman — and the first woman of color — to win the Best Cinematography trophy at the Oscars, Autumn already broke glass ceilings with "Sinners" when she and Ryan decided to use the iMAX format for the movie.

They initially wanted to shoot the film in 16 millimeter format but when they workshop it, "we ended up with the studio saying, have you guys considered large format?"" She told GMA News Online.

"So, he immediately called me, and we started talking about what that looked like and had some ideas, and we went and did a test. And when you're able to get your hands on these formats and go out into an open space and shoot them at sundown, it's the most beautiful stuff you'll ever see," Autumn told GMA News Online.

After projecting what they've done on an iMAX theater, "you don't ever really wanna go back. I knew that he wanted that to be what we would shoot," she said.

"It's very special because it's not easy to make, to do these things. The fact that we were supported and we were able to do it was really cool," she added.

— LA, GMA Integrated News