A First for the Philippines

It’s awards season again and people are tuning in for different reasons. Some people are looking at the fashion. Others are watching to see this year’s hosting and spiels.

…and if you’re a Filipino, there’s a chance that you followed the updates this year to see if Fil-Am Cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, won for Best Cinematography. She did win! What a feat in Filipino Cinema this is.

In Time for National Women’s Month

Coincidentally, Arkapaw is also the first woman to ever win the award for the category, breaking the Oscar’s 98-year-long streak of male winners. Additionally, she is also the first person of color to win in this category. Wow, right? Congratulations are definitely in order. To make things even more memorable, in her acceptance speech, she asked all the women in the room to stand, giving tribute to their collective role in history.

Her Work in Sinners

Arkapaw won for her work in Sinners, where she used large-format IMAX and 65mm film, pushing technical boundaries in cinematography. What makes this so great is that IMAX film offers a resolution of approximately 12K to 16K, providing far greater clarity, richer texture, and sharper images than standard 35mm film or digital 4K, which makes the visuals “feel grand” and “tactile”. Guess what? She was also the first woman to use this technology in film.

To backtrack a bit, Arkapaw study cinematography at the American Film Institute Conservatory, one of the most prestigious film schools in the world. Her breakthrough film was Palo Alto, for her dreamy and intimate take in cinematography. Before Sinners, she has previously worked with Ryan Coogler on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

We guess you can say that it was a grand, grand, grand, slam for her!

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The Corner Office MNL was born from a passion and curiosity for creating. Every artist has a voice and mind, completely unique to them. So is every artform, and yet, all are intertwined with one another in the creative universe.

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