“Kpop Demon Hunters” is ending the awards season on top.
A Netflix film that follows two fictional K-pop bands, HUNTR/X and Saja Boys, took home the Oscar for best animated feature on Sunday.
Co-director and writer Maggie Kang and Producer Michelle Wong is the first people of South Korean descent to win in the Animated Feature category. He accepted the award with co-director Chris Appelhans.
“To all the fans who got us here and to everyone who looks like me, I’m sorry it took us so long to see ourselves in a movie like this. But it’s here, and future generations don’t have to long,” Kang said in his acceptance speech about making a movie that other Koreans can see themselves in.
Appelhans spoke of the power of music and storytelling to “connect us as human beings across cultures and borders.”
“So I take a moment to say to all young filmmakers, artists, musicians in all corners of the world: tell your story, sing with your voice,” Appelhans said. “I promise you the world is waiting.”
The film took home two Golden Globes during the awards season (for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song in a Motion Picture) and two wins at the Critics’ Choice Awards. It made history at the Grammy Awards, the first time the K-pop genre won at the coveted music show.
The animated blockbuster, produced by Sony Pictures Animation and released by Netflix in June, was its first No. 1 for the streaming platform when it hit theaters last year. 1 box office title. Its score became Billboard’s highest-charting soundtrack of 2025, and the film’s hit songs — such as “Golden” and “Your Idol” — similarly topped the US Spotify charts.
Its plot follows HUNTR/X members Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (Mae Hong) and Zoe (Ji-Young Yoo), who must ward off monsters from the human world through their music.
Fan excitement surrounding “KPop Demon Hunters” was so widespread that the movie’s characters became popular choices for Halloween costumes. And the singers behind the characters’ singing voices — including HUNTR/X singers AJ, Audrey Nuna and Ray Ami — have garnered a massive fan base.
