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Kpop Demon Hunters Animated Film Receives Oscars Nominations
posted on by Alex Mateo
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in a livestream on Thursday that it has nominated Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans' animated film KPop Demon Hunters for Best Animated Feature Film at the 98th Oscars. The film also received a nomination in the Original Song category for "Golden." Other nominees for Animated Feature Film include Zootopia 2, Elio, Arco, and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.
The awards ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 15.
GALECA, The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, nominated the film for Animated Film of the Year and Film Music of the Year at its 2026 Dorian Film Awards.
The Visual Effects Society nominated the film for Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature, Oustanding Character in an Animated Feature for its main character Rumi, Outstanding Environment in an Animated Feature for its presentation of Seoul, Oustanding CG Cinematography, and Outstanding Effects Simulation in an Animated Feature at the 24th Annual VES Awards.
Finally, the Motion Picture Sound Editors nominated the film for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Animation and Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing – Feature Motion Picture for the 73rd annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards.
The film won the Best Motion Picture - Animated category at the 83rd Golden Globes Awards on January 11. The film's "Golden" song also won the Best Original Song - Motion Picture category.
Sony Pictures Animation's KPop Demon Hunters film premiered on Netflix in June 2025. The film became the first Netflix film to top the U.S. weekend box office after the KPop Demon Hunters Sing-Along Event opened in 1,700 theaters with US$19.2 million at the end of August. That same week, it became Netflix's most streamed film of all time globally with 236,000,000 views (edging out Red Notice's 230,900,000). Also that week, four songs from the film's soundtrack ranked in the top 10 of the weekly Billboard Hot 100 songs chart simultaneously in the United States — a feat no other soundtrack has ever accomplished.
The animated feature has appeared in Netflix's Top 10 for English-language films for 15 consecutive weeks.
The film has become the first title on the Netflix platform to surpass 300 million views, according to Netflix's official site Tudum.
Toei Animation, Daisuke Nishio, and Takashi Washio's "Magic Candies" ("Amedama") short was nominated for Best Animated Short Film for the 97th Academy Awards in 2025, but did not win the award.
Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron anime film won Best Animated Feature Film in the 96th Academy Awards ceremony in March 2024.
Sources: Oscars' YouTube channel, Variety (Jazz Tangcay), Deadline (Tom Tapp), IndieWire (link 2, Sarah Shachat)
