KPop Demon Hunters is unstoppable.
Netflix‘s come-from-nowhere global animation phenomenon swept this year’s Annie Awards, the animation honors handed out by the L.A. Branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, taking 10 prizes, including best feature.
The pop musical, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, also won best direction, best music, best writing, best editorial and best voice acting for Arden Cho, who voices Rumi. It also swept the technical categories at the Annies, winning best FX, best character animation, best character design and best production design.
Netflix launched the Sony-produced KPop Demon Hunters last summer with little promotion or fanfare, but it became an overnight sensation and the streamer’s most-watched movie of all time, with a reported 481.6 million views worldwide in the second half of 2025.
KPop indie competitor at the Oscars, Ugo Bienvenu’s hand-drawn French feature Arco, won the prize for best independent feature at the Annies.
A number of past Annie Awards winners have gone on to win the best animated feature Oscar. The last Annie best feature winner to also triumph at the Academy Awards was Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio in 2023. Last year, the Annie Awards’ top prize went to The Wild Robot. The Oscars opted for Annie best independent winner Flow.
In the television categories, notable winners included Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects, which won in the best TV/media mature category; Hulu’s The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, winner of the best TV/media children honor; and Disney+’s Win Or Lose, which took the best limited series prize. Wow Lisa, a Spanish-language Chilean show, which combines 3D characters placed within scale-model, crafted backgrounds, won the Annie for best preschool series.
ASIFA-Hollywood presented its lifetime achievement honors, the Winsor McCay Award, to Dutch writer and director Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle), The Lego Movie and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs writer-directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord and writer-director Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, Wild Robot).
Sandy Rabins, an animation and live action producer, who was a driving force behind ASIFA-Hollywood’s AnimAID, which provided assistance and support for those in the animation industry who were affected by the L.A. wildfires, received the June Foray Award for “significant and benevolent impact to the animation community.”
The Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement affecting the animation industry went to Japanese company Wacom, manufacturer of the Cintiq graphics tablet, which has become the industry standard for professional 2D animation, storyboarding and concept art.
Animation fair LightBox Expo received a special achievement award for bringing “the creative animation community of filmmakers together with animation students and fans.” The ASIFA-Hollywood Merit Award is given by the board of directors to individuals for current and on-going service to the organization and the animation industry went to Jeffrey New and Haley Mirren Douthit.
Full list of 2026 Annie Award Winners:
BEST FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST FEATURE – INDEPENDENT
Arco
Remembers, MountainA France, France 3 Cinéma
BEST SPECIAL PRODUCTION
Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical
WildBrain Studios in association with Apple
BEST SHORT SUBJECT
Snow Bear
The Art of Aaron Blaise
BEST SPONSORED
Olipop Yeti
Screen Novelties & Passion Pictures
BEST TV/MEDIA – PRESCHOOL
Wow Lisa
Episode: Rainy Day
Punkrobot
BEST TV/MEDIA – CHILDREN
The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball
Episode: The Rewrite
Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe
BEST TV/MEDIA – MATURE
Common Side Effects
Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions
BEST TV/MEDIA – LIMITED SERIES
Win Or Lose
Episode: Home
Pixar Animation Studios
BEST STUDENT FILM
A Sparrow’s Song
Tobias Eckerlin
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
BEST FX – TV/MEDIA
Edward Ferrysienanda, Kevin Christensen, Guy Schuleman, Benedikt Roettger, Kevin Tarpinian
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age
Episode: The Big Freeze
BBC Studios Natural History Unit
FX: Framestore
BEST FX – FEATURE
Filippo Macari, Nicola Finizio, Simon Corbaux, Naoki Kato, Daniel La Chapelle
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
FX: Sony Pictures Imageworks
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV/MEDIA
Alli Sadegiani
Win Or Lose
Pixar Animation Studios
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – FEATURE
Ryusuke Furuya
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation, Netflix
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – LIVE ACTION
Kayn Garcia, Jean-Denis Haas, Meena Ibrahim, Nathan McConnel, Nick Tripodi
How To Train Your Dragon
DreamWorks Animation
FX: Framestore
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – VIDEO GAME
Mike Jungbluth, Sebastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider, Remi Edmond
South of Midnight
Compulsion Games
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Robert Valley
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: 400 Boys
Blur Studio for Netflix
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – FEATURE
Scott Watanabe, Ami Thompson
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST DIRECTION – TV/MEDIA
Vincent Tsui
Common Side Effects
Episode: Cliff’s Edge
Productions
BEST DIRECTION – FEATURE
Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST MUSIC – TV/MEDIA
Ramin Djawadi, Shane Eli, Johnny Pakfar
Win Or Lose
Episode: Episode 6, Mixed Signals
Pixar Animation Studios
BEST MUSIC – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters Music Team
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Gigi Cavenago
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: How Zeke Got Religion
Blur Studio for Netflix
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATURE
Helen Chen, Dave Bleich, Wendell Dalit, Scott Watanabe, Celine Kim
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIA
Edgar Martins
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: How Zeke Got Religion
Blur Studio for Netflix
BEST STORYBOARDING – FEATURE
Anthony Holden, Young Ki Yoon
The Bad Guys 2
DreamWorks Animation
BEST VOICE ACTING – TV/MEDIA
Dan Mintz (as Tina Belcher)
Bob’s Burgers
Episode: Don’t Worry Be Hoopy
20th Television Animation
BEST VOICE ACTING – FEATURE
Arden Cho (as Rumi)
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIA
Joe Bennett, Steve Hely
Common Side Effects
Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions
BEST WRITING – FEATURE
Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIA
Tony Christopherson, Joie Lim
Common Side Effects
Episode: Raid
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions
BEST EDITORIAL – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters Editorial Team
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
WINSOR McCAY AWARD
Michaël Dudok de Wit
Christopher Miller
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
