It was an inauspicious night for Disney's animation studios at the 2026 Oscars, as their latest failure to win in the Best Animated Feature category now puts their losing streak at a record-breaking four years.
The winner this year, of course, was Netflix/Sony Pictures Animation phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters, which went on to win Best Song as well, for 'Golden' (obviously). That means Disney's two key branches – Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar – have now gone five years without a win, since Encanto's victory in 2021.
This is surprising, as it's a category that Disney typically dominates. In the 26 years since the award was created, Walt Disney Animation Studios has won four times, while Pixar has won the Best Animated Feature Academy Award a whopping 11 times. For comparison, Dreamworks, Sony Pictures Animation, and the legendary Studio Ghibli have won an Oscar statuette only two times each.
What can we attribute this cold streak to? Disney, and particularly Pixar, haven't been putting out their best work in the last few years, and there's been a noteworthy recognition of movies that dare to venture outside the Disney/Pixar house style. Last year's winner, Flow, was made entirely on Blender, for example. While Sony Pictures Animation has been pushing the boundaries, first with the Spider-Verse movies, and now with KPop Demon Hunters. Are Oscar voters simply looking for something different?
Disney and Pixar have plenty to be happy about, though. Fellow nominee Zootropolis 2 was the highest-grossing American movie of last year, while Pixar's latest release, Hoppers, is soaring at the box office and has received the Studio's best reviews for an original movie in almost a decade. It's safe to say they won't be winning in 2030 though, as that's when we might expect to see KPop Demon Hunters 2 at the Oscars (if it isn't delayed).
For more on the Oscars, check out our list of the 2026 Oscar winners in full, or for a blow-by-blow of how the evening went down, jump into our Oscars 2026 live blog.
