KPop Demon Hunters Wins NYFCC Best Animated Film Award

The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has named KPop Demon Hunters its Best Animated Film, adding the most influential award win to the film’s list of honors. The movie has already been shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; winning the NYFCC award provides the movie with an additional push.

Since its release, the film has emerged as a cross-cultural success, drawing attention for its animation style, music-driven storytelling, and its fusion of Korean pop aesthetics with Western action tropes. The movie premiered on Netflix on June 20, 2025, and became a global hit shortly after due to its blended narrative.

Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, KPop Demon Hunters blends action fantasy with contemporary K-pop culture. The narrative follows a globally famous girl group that balances stadium tours with a secret life of battling against supernatural threats.

TIME named KPop Demon Hunters its 2025 Breakthrough of the Year, citing the film’s cross-platform impact. “I don’t think anyone in the world will not know what KPop Demon Hunters is,” Netflix chair, Dan Lin, told TIME while underscoring the movie’s significance.

The movie not only became a streaming hit with more than 325M views on Netflix, but also received multiple critical accolades, such as nominations for Golden Globe Awards, Critics' Choice Awards, Grammys, topping Billboard charts, and the like.

NYFCC Win and the Oscar Landscape

The significance of the NYFCC honor extends beyond prestige; the group’s decision has historically influenced Oscar winnings. From Ghibli’s Spirited Away to Dream Well Studio’s Flow, roughly ten films that won the NYFCC award for Best Animated Film have gone on to secure the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The list includes breakthrough animated features, including Coco, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, WALL-E, and Inside Out.

Since 2001, only two of the NYFCC Best Animated Film winners did not get shortlisted for Oscars, whereas 11 of them made it to the final nominees list. Despite the global success and critical acclaim, KPop Demon Hunters has been deemed ineligible for the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) due its less theatrical presence in the U.K. BAFTA has also been considered another deciding factor influencing the Academy Awards. At such a time, the win at NYFCC provides the movie a significant critical acclaim.

KPop Demon Hunters now enters a competitive Oscar conversation that includes several high-profile animated contenders from major studios and international filmmakers. The shortlist includes movies such as Zootopia 2, Arco, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, and most importantly, the global hit, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle. Additionally, Zootopia 2 is the sequel of the 2017 Oscar-winning title, Zootopia, and it has already surpassed $1B USD in box office.

Nonetheless, KPop Demon Hunters’ NYFCC Best Animated Film prize cements a strong critics’ foundation for the film. The film, along with 34 other shortlisted titles, awaits the Academy’s nominees list announcement on Jan 22, 2026. If the film converts critics’ acclaim and music-industry attention into an Oscar nomination, it would mark a significant step for South Korea’s animation industry.