The Sinners cinematographer is the first woman to win in her category; here's when others did the same.

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.

the concept of a first women ever winning an award in 2026… https://t.co/06ENXcMv20

The American Society of Cinematographers didn’t accept its first woman member until 1979, 60 years after it was founded. 

Women made up 7% of cinematographers working in the top 100 films in 2025, compared to 28% of producers, 20% of writers, and 10% of directors. In the same year, 75% of the top-grossing 250 films employed 10 or more men in “pivotal behind-the-scenes roles”, while only 7% did the same for women.

With that in mind, it might not be so shocking to learn that many other non-gendered categories were later to award women than you might realise.

In order of oldest to most recent, here are the first years in which a woman won a non-gendered Oscars category: