KPop Demon Hunters Just Silenced Any Doubt Over Its Oscars Status

2 weeks ago 9

Huntrix standing confidently as demons descend on them in KPop Demon Hunters

Published Feb 22, 2026, 12:40 PM EST

Alex is the Senior Movies Editor, managing the New Movies team, as well as one of ScreenRant's Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics. After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in English, he spent a locked-down year in Scotland completing a Master's in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, which he hears is a nice, lively city. He now lives in and works from Milan, Italy, conveniently a short train ride from the Venice Film Festival, which he first covered for SR in 2024.

In awards season, it's not always advantageous to be the clear frontrunner from the very beginning. While it indicates a strong level of support right out the gate, it also provides a long runway for extra scrutiny, and not all movies or performances end up as well-liked as they started. Alternatively, support can crystalize so completely that voters assume a certain outcome is a foregone conclusion, freeing them up to vote for something else they love. Olivia Colman's surprise win after Glenn Close had been the anointed victor all season is often attributed to this phenomenon.

After becoming a runaway success on Netflix over the summer, this is the position that KPop Demon Hunters found itself in at the 2026 Oscars. The Sony Pictures Animation film is so widely assumed to be walking away with Best Animated Feature that it was worth wondering whether something could sneak up and snatch it away – Zootopia 2 being the most likely candidate. A huge box office hit that's also a creative return to form for Disney, against the streaming phenomenon representing the company currently trying to swallow up one of the remaining legacy studios? That could make for a compelling spoiler narrative.

After yesterday, though, there's no room left for doubt: KPop Demon Hunters is bringing that statuette home.

KPop Demon Hunters' Dominant Showing At The Annie Awards Sets It Up For Oscars Glory

On Saturday, February 21, the Annie Awards, presented by the Hollywood branch of the International Animated Film Association, celebrated the past year in animated film and TV. KPop Demon Hunters emerged as the big winner. Not only did it take home the prize for Best Feature, but it won all 10 categories in which it was nominated. That puts it in a multi-way tie for second-most in Annie history, alongside films such as Mulan, The Incredibles, How To Train Your Dragon, and Inside Out. Only Pixar's Coco, with 11 victories, has ever won more.

The Annies aren't a totally clean predictor of the Best Animated Feature Oscar; since 2010, matched nearly as often as they split. The latest divide came just last year, when The Wild Robot won big at the former and lost the latter to Flow. But it's still a strong sign that Hollywood isn't tiring of KPop Demon Hunters, and is instead ready to keep celebrating one of the biggest films of the year.

Zootopia 2, meanwhile, was blanked. In fact, the only other Oscar nominee to take home a trophy was Arco, which won for Best Feature - Independent. Unlike Flow, which had the advantage of also being nominated in Best International Feature, Arco hasn't really built the critical momentum it would take to upset the current leader. It seems that, in the Best Animated Film category, this is just destined to be KPop Demon Hunters' year.