KPop Demon Hunters' Oscar win last night wasn't exactly a surprise. It was easily the bookies' favourite for Best Animated Feature after cleaning up at the Concept Art Awards and the VES Awards for visual effects. But that doesn't detract from how significant the win is.
Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans' musical animated movie has become a cultural phenomenon. It had already made the cover of Time magazine. Does Oscar’s success add anything? I’d say it does, cementing the movie’s impact on global entertainment and encouraging more creative animation in the future.
Why KPop Demon Hunters' Oscar win is a big deal
01. It’s a streaming-first release
Apple TV’s CODA set a precedent in 2022 with its Best Picture win, showing that a film without a conventional cinema rollout could take the top prize at the Oscars. KPop Demon Hunters has done the same for animation. While platforms like Netflix and Apple TV+ had received Oscar nominations before, this was the first time a streaming-first movie took the prize.
KPop Demon Hunters qualified by meeting the requirement for a one-week theatrical run in Los Angeles County. Its win reinforces streaming platforms' increasing influence and relevance in animation, and shows that it can pay off when they take the risks studios weren't prepared to take at the box office.
02. It showed the demand for more grown-up animation
Other than its creators, nobody had that much faith in KPop Demons Hunters. Sony thought it didn’t merit a cinema release and passed it to Netflix. Even the streaming giant was surprised that it did so well, scrambling to put out KPop Demon Hunters merch after the movie suddenly became its most-watched content ever.
That success has shown that there’s a huge market for animation aimed at an audience older than that of most Disney and Pixar offerings. Hopefully that will make Sony and other major studios sit up and take risks on more varied animated features.
03. It cements the end of Disney-Pixar hegemony
Speaking of Disney and Pixar, there’s been talk about the end of their traditional dominance over the Best Animated Feature Oscar for some years. It’s now been four years since Disney’s last win (Encanto en 2022) and five since Pixar’s (Soul in 2021). The original Zootopia won in 2017, but KPop Demon Hunters swiped this year’s award from Zootopia 2’s grasp.
Sure, KPop Demon Hunters is a more mainstream choice than last year, when the Oscar went to the silent 2D animation Flow, but that perhaps shows even more that Disney and Pixar’s domination has given way to more varied animation even on the mass stage.
The film's crossover appeal, blending music, action fantasy and a hybrid animation style with 2D anime-inspired aesthetics makes it unusual compared to traditional Oscar-winning animations, turning more people on to international animation.
That's not to say Disney and Pixar have lost their pull. Zootopia 2 and Hoppers have been huge hits. But I’d argue that it's good for animation to have more variety, more diverse studios and more global storytelling beyond the hegemony of US family animation.
The decision should please everyone who was getting fed up with the 3D realism look, and it provides a boost of encouragement for global animation. KPop Demon Hunters (2025) isn’t a South Korean production, but, directed by Korean-Canadian Maggie Kang, it’s an authentic celebration of K-pop culture, which it’s now showcasing on Hollywood’s biggest stage. It bodes well for projects like Baahubali The Eternal War.
04. KPop Demon Hunters' novel tech pipeline
KPop Demon Hunters was also technologically innovative. Sony used the movie as an experiment that’s gone on to transform its animation pipeline. It incorporated the use of Unreal Engine in Kpop Demon Hunters to speed up layout and previs, allowing rapid experimentation of lighting options and fast creation of crowd scenes.
Sony’s already adopted the pipeline for subsequent movies such as Goat and reckons the change allows its layout and previs teams to work 20 to 25 per cent faster. An Oscars seal of approval could encourage more technical experimentation and innovation.
For more on the inspirations for the movie, see the KPop Demon Hunters art book.
The Oscar for Best Animated Short went to The Girl Who Cried Pearls, which was up against Butterfly, Forevergreen, Retirement Plan and The Three Sisters. Avatar: Fire and Ash won the Oscar for visual effects.
