KPop Demon Hunters was one of the biggest movies of 2025, becoming Netflix’s most-watched movie of all time and dominating the airwaves. Even if you still haven’t seen it, you won’t have escaped hearing ‘Golden’ in the past few months.
So it makes sense then that the EE BAFTA Film Awards are marking that worldwide domination with a special live performance. The movie’s stars Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami – who provided the singing voices of Rumi, Mira and Zoey – are performing ‘Golden’ during the ceremony, marking their first-ever live performance outside the US.
What you might be confused by is that despite this performance, KPop Demon Hunters is not nominated for Children’s & Family Film or Animated Film at this year’s BAFTAs. (The BAFTAs doesn’t have an Original Song category like the Oscars, where ‘Golden’ is nominated.)
Instead, it’s Arco, Boong, Lilo & Stitch and Zootropolis 2 competing for Children’s & Family Film, while Elio, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain and Zootropolis 2 are competing for Animated Film.
Arguably KPop Demon Hunters could have won in both of those categories, so what gives? It’s all down to the pesky rules.
Netflix
Related: How KPop Demon Hunters became the biggest Netflix movie ever
Currently, in order for movies to be eligible for BAFTA consideration, they need to have had a qualifying theatrical release. According to Variety, there are sometimes “exceptional circumstances” – such as an event cinema release – where a movie might be eligible.
KPop Demon Hunters was released first on Netflix, although it did later have a limited weekend run in UK cinemas in August and then again over the Halloween weekend in October. As a result, Netflix lodged a formal appeal hoping that this “event-style theatrical run” would allow it to be considered.
Unfortunately for Netflix and HUNTR/X fans in the UK, BAFTA’s Film Committee rejected the appeal and stated that the movie didn’t meet the eligibility criteria. While it did have the special theatrical release, it didn’t meet the minimum requirement of “at least 10 commercial screenings in the UK for at least seven days in aggregate”.
Netflix
Related: The most-watched Netflix movies of all time
The Oscars have similar requirements when it comes to streaming releases, requiring them to be shown in cinemas in one of six qualifying areas. KPop Demon Hunters screened at cinemas in San Francisco, Los Angeles County and New York City for a week, beginning on the same day as its Netflix release.
As a result, KPop Demon Hunters is currently a hot favourite to win Animated Feature Film and Original Song at the Oscars. What’s interesting though is that it would make history if it did win Animated Feature Film because, as Variety notes, no movie has won that category without a BAFTA nomination.
But if its Netflix release has proven anything, KPop Demon Hunters has never met a record it couldn’t break.
KPop Demon Hunters is available to watch on Netflix.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.