K-Pop Demon Hunters, The Girl Who Cried Pearls Triumph at The Oscars
Although there are other award ceremonies that occur throughout the year, The Oscars are considered the climax of the Awards Season. Certainly, they are the most recognised and acclaimed. The 2025-2026 film awards season came to its traditional conclusion this past weekend with the 98th Academy Awards.
The award season circuit includes prizes given out by various award organisations and critics' circles. In terms of animation the competition initially started out quite open. There were wins for Zootopia 2, Arco and Little Amelie Or The Character Of Rain. But as the season rolled on, the momentum seemed to be with K-Pop Demon Hunters, picking up an impressive 98 wins to Zootopia's 15. K-Pop Demon Hunter picked up major awards including The Golden Globes, The Critics Choice, The VES Awards and 10 Annie Awards. So, going into The Oscars it really seemed it was K-Pop Demon Hunters' award to lose.
And lose it did not, as much as predicted, K-Pop Demon Hunters was awarded the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. This marks the second win for Sony Pictures Animation, following Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, and the second win for Netflix following Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. It's the first win for directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans.
If any outcome could have been said to be more than predictable than K-Pop's win in Best Animated Feature, it was that same film's win in Best Original Song. The movie's breakout hit Golden took home the little gold man, beating out fierce competition from I Lied To You from Sinners and becoming the first K-Pop song to do so. It was also one of only two nominated songs to get a live performance on the night.
It was a much more open field in the category of Best Animated Short. In what was far from a foregone conclusion, the Oscar was awarded to The Girl Who Cried Pearls from Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski and Canada's National Film Board. We previously interviewed Chris and Maciek here.
Lastly, the Best Visual Effects Oscar was awarded to James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash. The award was given to Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett for their ground-breaking work on the threequel.
And that's it for another year. We'll see you next year, when I'm guessing the Oscar will go to... Wildwood (check back this time next year and see if I'm right!).
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
KPop Demon Hunters – Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong (winner)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Nidia Santiago and Henri Magalon
Zootopia 2 – Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Yvett Merino
