Oscar winners victory lap: Autumn Durald Arkapaw & Joachim Trier

April 3, 2026·30 min·2 clips

Joachim Trier reveals how he cast Elle Fanning without a script, and Autumn Durald Arkapaw breaks down shooting Sinners for IMAX.

The Academy Awards are behind us. Kim Masters uses the post-Oscar moment to revisit interviews with recent winners, staying with craft instead of ceremony. Autumn Durald-Arquepa starts with the physical side of Sinners: heavy camera moves, lighting, focus, timing, and a lot of coordination. One grocery-store shot follows a character outside while showing the Black side and the white side of the street in one Steadicam move. The juke joint sequence gets even more technical. Durald-Arquepa says the team could shoot only seventy-five seconds at a time because that was all the magazine could handle with such heavy film. That limit shaped the scene. Three shots had to be planned, joined, and smoothed through VFX so the handoffs would not call attention to themselves. Christopher Nolan comes up as practical advice, not mythology. He told Ryan Coogler to treat the giant IMAX rig like a Super 8 camera, meaning the machine should not boss the movie around. Hoyta gave similar guidance. The useful part is the discipline: make the film you meant to make, even when the gear is loud, bulky, and unforgiving. Joachim Trier brings another version of freedom. Talking about Sentimental Value, he says he no longer has to cast for money and can choose people for the quality of the collaboration. Elle Fanning came through a trusted recommendation. Trier remembers asking Mike Mills who might fit Rachel Kemp, then finding the work with Fanning marvelous once they spoke. The industry lesson lands softly, but it has teeth. Awards matter here less as trophies than as proof that artists can sometimes earn enough room for taste, trust, and execution to beat the usual compromises.

As heard by us

A grounded post-Oscars craft talk on IMAX strain, casting freedom, and the work behind the wins.

The Business uses its post-Oscars victory lap to get past the usual awards gloss and into the mechanics of making the work. Kim Masters pairs Autumn Durald Arkapaw on Sinners with Joachim Trier on Sentimental Value, and the better material comes when craft details crowd out…

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Why you'd press play

You want Oscar chatter that turns into casting, cameras, and the actual labor behind the films winners made this year.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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