‘Sinners,’ shot on IMAX film, is a historic first for female cinematographers

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‘Sinners,’ shot on IMAX film, is a historic first for female cinematographers

2025-04-18 21:34 Last Updated At：21:51

Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw didn’t realize she was going to make history on “Sinners.” The Ryan Coogler film, now playing in theaters nationwide, marks the first time a female director of photography has shot a movie on large format IMAX film.

It was Kodak executive Vanessa Bendetti who texted her the news.

“I smiled at the thought,” Arkapaw said in a recent interview. “I felt very proud that Ryan gave me the opportunity.”

The format, a favorite of filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, has gained popularity in recent years — not just with directors but with moviegoers seeking it out as well. Coogler hadn’t originally sought it out for “Sinners” (he had planned on using 16 mm) until Warner Bros. executive Jesse Ehrman asked him if he’d considered large format, which gives moviegoers more resolution and a shallower depth of field.

“Just from an exhibition sense in this day and age with folks having so much access to streaming and watching so many things on their phones, it’s nice to have a format like IMAX that can be an experience you can only experience in the theaters,” Coogler told The Associated Press.

Coogler and Arkapaw then began a testing process, looking at 70 mm IMAX prints of films like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Hateful Eight” and “Tenet” and consulting with Nolan and his regular cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. Coogler quickly fell in love with the format and felt it was fitting for the larger-than-life, genre-bending film about vampires, the blues and life in the Jim Crow south in 1932.

“I wasn’t surprised that we were exploring large format,” Arkapaw said. “We shot ‘Wakanda Forever’ on IMAX, but that was digital. We always talked about true IMAX being ... something that you see and you fall in love with.”

Her conversation with Hoytema made her even more excited. The Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” cinematographer told her not to worry about the size or weight of the equipment and to shoot the movie as she would with any other kind of camera.

“Hearing that straight off was inspiring and encouraging and we took that advice and just told our story,” Arkapaw said. “It was very freeing.”

In the end, they decided to employ a combination of IMAX film and Ultra Panavision 70, an even rarer format that Quentin Tarantino resurrected for “The Hateful Eight.” This means different scenes have different aspect ratios, which Coogler himself broke down in a video explainer for Kodak.

“We’re using these two formats for the very first time,” Coogler said. “It really complements the story, it really complements the setting and it really complements the filmmaking.”

One of Arkapaw’s favorite scenes was one they weren’t even initially going to do on IMAX film because it was dialogue heavy and the cameras are notoriously noisy. But if her work on “Wakanda” taught her anything about Coogler, it’s that he’s always looking to push boundaries.

The scene is the introduction to Jack O’Connell’s Irish vampire Remmick and the Choctaw trying to hunt him down, which they shot like a Western as the sun sets in the distance.

“We had a lot of beautiful crane work in that and some intimate stuff. Ryan loves a hallway, so there’s a Steadicam shot inside. It’s very eerie,” she said. “I can’t see that scene in any other format now.”

With “Sinners” out now, the hope is that audiences will seek out the special formats where they can, whether it’s IMAX film or digital.

“We want to bring people back to the cinema, get back to theaters,” “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan said. “I think this is a movie that’s meant to give for the moviegoing experience…it takes you on a ride.”

The profession has come a long way since Arkapaw started exploring cinematography as a career path. It wasn’t too long ago that she said she struggled to find many women cinematographers besides Ellen Kuras (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”). And while there are more than there were 20 years ago, there are still barriers to be broken, including an Oscar win. Only three have been nominated: Rachel Morrison (who worked with Coogler on “Fruitvale Station” and “Black Panther”) was the first for “Mudbound," in 2018, followed by Ari Wegner for “The Power of the Dog" and Mandy Walker for “Elvis.”

Arkapaw takes the significance of her landmark seriously.

“I heard a phrase that said you need to see you to be you,” she said. “I think for us females in business, the more women are able to shoot on large format, it will inspire the younger girls who maybe don’t think that they can get there.”

Minnesota protesters, agents repeatedly square off while prosecutors quit after Renee Good's death

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritant at activists Tuesday during another day of confrontations in Minneapolis, while students miles away walked out of a suburban school to protest the Trump administration's bold immigration sweeps.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an immigration agent reached the local U.S. Attorney's Office: At least five prosecutors have resigned amid controversy over how the U.S. Justice Department is handling the investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

Separately, a Justice Department official said Wednesday there's no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation. An FBI probe of Renee Good's death is ongoing.

Strife between federal agents and the public continues to boil, six days since Good was shot in the head while driving off in her Honda Pilot. At one scene, gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where she died. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help after agents in a Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove off.

It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed immigration agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.

“Who doesn't have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.

Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.

“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.

In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.

Later, a large crowd gathered outside a hotel in Minneapolis banging drums and blowing whistles as officers wearing helmets and carrying batons stood guard just inside. Meanwhile, confrontations erupted between protesters and officers guarding the federal building being used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.

The departures in the U.S. Attorney's Office include First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who had been leading the sprawling prosecution of public fraud schemes in the state, according to people who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge.

The lawsuit says Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.

“What we are seeing is thousands — plural — thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

A judge set a status conference for Wednesday.

Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.

In a different lawsuit, a judge said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents' activities. Government attorneys argued that officers must protect themselves.

The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.

State and local authorities are urging the public to share video and any other evidence as they seek to separately investigate Good's death after federal authorities insisted they would approach it alone and not share information.

In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term.

“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”

Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.