KPop goes the Annies.
Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters flat-out dominated the 53rd annual Annie Awards on Saturday night, winning all 10 of the categories for which it was nominated including Best Feature, Direction for Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and Voice Acting for Arden Cho as Rumi. Seems we have a front-runner for the Animated Featured Oscar next month.
See the full winners list spanning film, TV, video games and more below.
Netflix’s most popular film ever took the night’s first film prize, for Production Design, and then snagged — in a decided non-upset — Best Music. KPop Demon Hunters later added Best Writing, Character Design, Character Animation, FX and editorial. The film has been viewed more than 482 million times, and its soundtrack has been streamed some 11 billion times (with a capital B).
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As a result of the sweep, Disney/Pixar’s Elio – which also had 10 Annie noms – went home empty-handed despite being nominated in the KPop-free Storyboarding category. That trophy went to DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys. Walt Disney Studios’ Zootopia 2, the highest-grossing Hollywood toon of all time, also was shut out Saturday night.
Best Feature – Independent went to Neon’s sci-fi/fantasy tale Acro, which premiered at Cannes and is up for the Animated Feature Oscar next month. It will face off against KPop Demon Hunters, Zootopia 2, Elio and Gkids’ Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.
Since the Best Animated Feature Oscar category was launched in 2002, 14 of the 23 winners of the Annies’ marquee Best Feature prize – and seven of the past 13 – went on to claim the golden statuette. But last year bucked the trend as the Academy Award went to Flow over The Wild Robot, which dominated the 2025 Annies with seven nods.
On the TV side, the first two awards of the night went to Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots, and later it added a third Annie – making it 11 overall to go with 17 Emmy wins. Win or Lose, Pixar’s first longform animated series, and Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects had three wins each. Other TV winners included Fox’s Bob Burgers voice actor Dan Mintz and Hulu’s The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball Episode.
The evening’s first Juried Award, The June Foray Award, went to Sandy Rabins, animation and live-action producer and the founder of the AnimAID effort to assist and support those in the animation industry who were affected by the L.A. Wildfires. The group has raised nearly $700,000 so far. Named for the Annie Awards founder, the award is presented to people who have made a positive impact on the animation industry.
The first of three Winsor McCay Awards for lifetime achievement was presented to prolific Oscar-winning filmmaker Christopher Miller and Phil Lord of the Spider-Verse and Lego Movie franchises and many other films. The second went to Oscar-winning animator, writer and director Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle, short film Father and Daughter). The final McCay Award was four-time Oscar-nominated animation whiz and voice actor Chris Sanders, who has won five career Annie Awards including for The Wild Robot last year. The awards were presented by his fellow Lilo & Stitch actor Tea Carerre.
Wacom, manufacturer of the Cintiq graphics tablet and other products, later received the Ub Iwerks Award for technical achievement.
ASIFA-Hollywood‘s Special Achievement Award went to LightBox Expo, the annual event that brings the creative animation community of filmmakers together with animation students and fans.
The juried award winners also are listed below.
ASIFA-Hollywood previously revealed the Animation Educators’ Forum Hall of Fame Class of 2026. They are Elmer Plummer, Doug Crane, Harry Love, Harold Whitaker and Nancy Beiman.
Created in 1972 by veteran voice actor June Foray, the Annie Awards recognize the animation industry’s most talented artists and storytellers.
Here are the winners at the 2026 Annie Awards:
BEST FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST FEATURE – INDEPENDENT
Arco
Remembers, MountainA France, France 3 Cinéma
BEST DIRECTION – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
BEST DIRECTION – TV/MEDIA
Common Side Effects Episode: Cliff’s Edge
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions
Vincent Tsui
BEST STORYBOARDING – FEATURE
The Bad Guys 2
DreamWorks Animation
Anthony Holden, Young Ki Yoon
BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIA
Love, Death + Robots Episode: How Zeke Got Religion Blur Studio for Netflix
Edgar Martins
BEST TV/MEDIA – LIMITED SERIES
Win Or Lose
Episode: Episode 8: Home
Pixar Animation Studios
BEST TV/MEDIA – MATURE
Common Side Effects Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions
BEST TV/MEDIA – CHILDREN
The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball Episode: The Rewrite
Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe
BEST TV/MEDIA – PRESCHOOL
Wow Lisa
Episode: Rainy Day
BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIA
Common Side Effects Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions
Joe Bennett, Steve Hely
BEST VOICE ACTING – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Arden Cho (Character: Rumi)
BEST VOICE ACTING – TV/MEDIA
Bob’s Burgers
Episode: Don’t Worry Be Hoopy
20th TV
Dan Mintz (Character: Tina Belcher)
BEST EDITORIAL – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters Editorial Team
BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIA
Common Side Effects Episode: Raid
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions
Tony Christopherson, Joie Lim
BEST FX – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Production Company: Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
FX Production Company: Sony Pictures Imageworks
Filippo Macari, Nicola Finizio, Simon Lewis, Naoki Kato, Daniel La Chapelle
BEST FX – TV/MEDIA
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age Episode: The Big Freeze
Production Company: BBC Studios Natural History Unit
FX Production Company: Framestore
Edward Ferrysienanda, Kevin Christensen, Guy Shuleman , Benedikt Roettger, Kevin Tarpinian
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation, Netflix
Ryusuke Furuya
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV MEDIA
Win or Lose
Pixar Animation Studios
Alli Sadegiana
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – LIVE ACTION
How To Train Your Dragon
Production Company: DreamWorks Animation
FX Production Company: Framestore
Kayn Garcia, Jean-Denis Haas, Meena Ibrahim, Nathan McConnel, Nick Tripodi
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – VIDEO GAME
South of Midnight
Compulsion Games
Mike Jungbluth, Sebastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider, Remi Edmond
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Scott Watanabe, Ami Thompson
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Love, Death + Robots Episode: 400 Boys
Blur Studio for Netflix
BEST MUSIC – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
KPop Demon Hunters Music Team
BEST MUSIC – TV/MEDIA
Win Or Lose
Episode: Episode 6, Mixed Signals
Pixar Animation Studios
Ramin Djawadi, Shane Eli, Johnny Pakfar
BEST SPONSORED
Olipop Yeti
Screen Novelties & Passion Pictures
BEST SPECIAL PRODUCTION
Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical
WildBrain Studios in association with Apple
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Helen Chen, Dave Bleich, Wendell Dalit, Scott Watanabe, Celine Kim
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: How Zeke Got Religion
Blur Studio for Netflix
BEST SHORT SUBJECT
Snow Bear
The Art of Aaron Blaise
BEST STUDENT FILM
A Sparrow’s Song
Student director: Tobias Eckerlin
Student producer: Tobias Eckerlin
School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
JURIED AWARDS
Winsor McCay Award
Michaël Dudok de Wit
Christopher Miller and Phil Lord
Chris Sanders
June Foray Award
Sandy Rabins
Ub Iwerks Award
Wacom
Special Achievement Award
LightBox Expo
ASIFA-Hollywood Merit Award
Jeffrey New
Haley Mirren Douthit