K-Pop Demon Hunters Wins 2 Golden Globes

Awards season is in full swing. And like every year, before the Oscars can even release their nominations, the Golden Globes are already done and dusted. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's annual awards are not quite as prestigious as The Academy Awards, nor are they taken as seriously. In fact, they're often seen as mainly being an excuse for A-listers to get drunk.

In a ceremony largely dominated by One Battle After Another and Adolescence, there was still room to take the time to celebrate animation. This year's Best Picture- Animated category is probably the most eclectic field seen yet. It takes in one anime feature, two French films and three big studio pictures. The winner of the category does not always match the eventual Oscar winner, but they have done so for the last five years. The nominees also seldom differ.

This year's nominees were Pixar's Elio, Disney's Zootopia 2,  Aniplex and Crunchyroll's Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle,  Arco, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain and the ultimate winner, Sony and Netflix's K-Pop Demon Hunters.

The film depicts the adventures of Huntrix, a K-Pop girlband who moonlight as- you guessed it- demon hunters. This latest win is the next step in a phenomenal run for Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans's feature, which went from being 'dumped' on Netflix to become the most streamed movie on the service ever. It's impossible to say how much money it could have made had it been released in cinemas, although it did have a successful, very limited run of two weekends in cinemas around the world. By some metrics, it is definitely one of the most successful animated films of all time- although comparing it with a conventionally released theatrical film is a bit like comparing apples with oranges.

Impressively, and unusually for an animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters was nominated in multiple categories. The film took home a second award for the Best Original Song category, for the break-out hit Golden. It overcame fierce competition that included two songs from Wicked For Good and one from Avatar: Fire and Ash.

K-Pop Demon Hunters was also nominated in one final category- for Cinematic and Box-Office Achievement. Alas, the film's luck ran out and it was defeated by Ryan Coogler's Sinners. It was nominated alongside fellow animated film Zootopia 2, as well as Avatar: Fire and Ash, F1, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Weapons, and Wicked For Good.

So, with these wins under its belt and the massive 10 nominations at the Annie Awards, do we feel comfortable saying that K-Pop Demon Hunters is the favourite come Oscar time? We'd have to say at this point it feels like a safe bet. But there's always room for a surprise. We don't have long to wait to find out what films are in the mix- the Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22.