Hoyte van Hoytema has become the first Dutch cameraman to win an Oscar for his work after clinching the top cinema prize for his cinematography for Oppenheimer at a glittering ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night. 

The blockbuster film about the man who invented the atomic bomb picked up seven awards, including best film, best director and best male performance.

Van Hoytema, who had been nominated for an Oscar once before for Dunkirk, thanked director Christopher Nolan and producer Emma Thomas in his acceptance speech, saying they were the best thing that could have happened in his career. 

“To all aspiring film makers out there, I would like to say ‘use that incredible new hip thing called celluloid,” he said. “It is much easier than you think and it makes things so much better.” 

In total, 11 Dutch nationals have won an Oscar. The last was animator Erik-Jan de Boer who was part of the the team which took the prize for best visual effects in 2013 for his work on Life of Pi.

Van Hoytema was born in Switzerland in 1971 while his parents were there briefly and studied film making in Poland. He has a Swedish wife and has said that “everything that has been important for my career has taken place in Sweden.”