r.i.p.

The Film Industry Reacts to the Tragic Death of Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

Halyna Hutchins was 42. Photo: Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie

On October 21, on the New Mexico set of the Western film Rust, a prop firearm was discharged during the filming of a scene, accidentally injuring director Joe Souza and killing the film’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Hutchins was 42. Hutchins had spent her career working as cinematographer and director of photography on a number of independent films, including Darlin’, Blindfire, and Archenemy. “Sick and devastated to hear that my friend and rockstar cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on set today in New Mexico,” director Elle Schneider tweeted in a thread. “I don’t have words to describe this tragedy. I want answers. I want her family to somehow find peace among this horrific, horrific loss.” In the aftermath of Hutchins’s death, celebrities, friends, filmmakers, and colleagues are posting their remembrances and shock, as well as concerns about the continued use of dangerous blanks in prop guns on film sets.

Film Industry Mourns the Death of Rust’s Halyna Hutchins