Autumn Durald Arkapaw Made Oscars History: A Timeline Of Women’s First Wins

Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw made Oscars history last night. She’s the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and on receiving the accolade, she invited women in the audience to stand with her.

Of course, plenty of other women have won in non-gendered Oscars categories (not, e.g., “best actress”).

Cassandra Kulukundis, for instance, just won the new Best Casting Oscar category for One Battle After Another; Kate Hawley snagged the Costume Design win for Frankenstein, too.

But given that the Oscars have been running for almost a hundred years, a woman winning in this specific category may seem a little, well, late.

In fact, the first woman to even be nominated for best cinematography – Rachel Morrison, whom Arkapaw shouted out in her speech – reached the coveted status as recently as 2018.