It’s a good year to be Autumn Durald Arkapaw, with three features opening in quick succession: Untogether rolled out in February, followed by Teen Spirit in April, and The Sun Is Also a Star in May. 

But in the decade since the California native graduated with her Masters from AFI, there have been many good years. Like 2009, when a mumblecore film she DP’ed while still in school, Macho, won Best Microbudget Film at Raindance and was picked up by IFC. Or 2010, when she shot second unit on a black-and-white35mm Levi’s campaign with Harris Savides, ASC, and Melody McDaniel.Or 2013, a breakthrough year thanks to Palo Alto, based on James Franco’s eponymous novel and directed by Gia Coppola. Or subsequent years full of eye-catching commercials and music videos, like “Porno” for Arcade Fire, using infrared on Arri’s monochrome camera during carnival in Haiti. 

Music videos for Janelle Monáe, Solange Knowles, Jonas Brothers, and others put Durald Arkapaw in a good place to shoot Teen Spirit, a Cinderella story with music at its core. Helmed by actor and first-time feature director Max Minghella, it follows Violet (Elle Fanning), a shy teen on the Isle of Wight with a passion for singing. When auditions for the television competition Teen Spirit come to town, she enters, then finds an unlikely mentor at the local dive bar, Vlad (Zlatko Buric). Incorporating the language of music videos, the 33-day shoot had Fanning performing tunes by Robyn, Annie Lennox, Sigrid, Orbital, and more.

The Sun Is Also a Star is based on the YA best-seller Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. Directed by Ry Russo-Young, it recounts the one-day love story between Jamaica-born Natasha (Yara Shahidi) and Korean-American Daniel (Charles Melton), who meet by chance under the starry ceiling of Grand Central Station. Daniel tells Natasha he can convince her to fall in love with him within 24 hours. As he sets about his task, the two debate fate vs coincidence, poetry vs science, all while the clock is ticking towards Natasha’s imminent deportation.