‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Wins Two Critics Choice Awards
The animated K-pop musical, the biggest Netflix movie ever, kicked off awards season by continuing its run of success.
KPop Demon Hunters was one of the biggest pop-culture success stories of 2025, and it looks like the phenomenon is still going strong in the new year. The animated K-pop musical kicked off 2026 awards season Sunday by winning two categories at the Critics Choice Awards.
At the ceremony, which took place in the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, KPop Demon Hunters was honored as Best Animated Feature, while the film’s chart-topping hit “Golden” was named Best Song. EJAE, a songwriter for the soundtrack and the singing voice for main character Rumi, accepted the award for “Golden” alongside her co-writer Mark Sonnenblick. They were joined onstage by Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, the other two singing voices in the movie’s fictional girl group HUNTR/X. The voice and singing cast was also present onstage with directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans while they accepted best animated feature.
“When writing this song, I found myself living vicariously through my character Rumi. Her life and journey in the movie felt deeply familiar to me,” EJAE said of “Golden” during her Best Song acceptance speech. “The song needed to be an expression of hope to convince herself that she could write and reach for her dreams. In many ways, it did the same for me, but most importantly for it to be giving hope to so many people around the world is truly the greatest honor.”
Produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Netflix, KPop Demon Hunters has become a statistical marvel and a zeitgeist-defining sensation. In August, about two months after debuting on the platform, it became the most-watched Netflix movie of all time, having accumulated more than 236 million views. It has since more than doubled that total, surpassing the 500 million mark in December. During a one-weekend theatrical release in August, a special sing-along version of the movie topped the U.S. box office.
As for “Golden,” it spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. In August, around the time it broke Netflix’s viewing record, KPop Demon Hunters became the first movie soundtrack to place four songs in the Hot 100 top 10 simultaneously. The soundtrack reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in September. It recently landed six songs on the year-end Hot 100 chart, including the HUNTR/X hits “Golden,” “How It’s Done,” “What It Sounds Like,” and “Takedown” plus two tracks from the fictional demonic boy band Saja Boys, “Your Idol” and “Soda Pop.”
KPop Demon Hunters will continue to be a fixture of awards season in the coming months. It’s up for three Golden Globes and five Grammys, among other nominations. A sequel is in development, with plans for release in 2029.
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