There is no more evident and massive phenomenon of 2025 in the world than the omnipresent Demon Hunters. K-Pop Warriors are everywhere, from the music playlists of any self-respecting store or restaurant with Golden resonating, to t-shirts, sweatshirts, pencil cases, backpacks, and any item that a child can carry in schools around the world. And the Oscars were not going to miss the opportunity to ride that unstoppable Korean wave.
The Netflix animated film has triumphed in the two categories in which it was nominated: precisely for Best Animated Film and also for Best Song for Golden, the mega-hit by Huntrx - the fictional trio formed by Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami - which led all the charts worldwide last summer. And with that, it has solidified a decline that has been slowly brewing over the past few years: that of Disney and Pixar.
The historical animation giants have gone four consecutive years without an Oscar, a fact that had not occurred in the 25 years of the category's existence. In fact, both studios have won in 15 out of those 25 years, 60% of the total. But since the 2022 edition, where Encanto triumphed, neither Disney - which also hosts the gala as ABC belongs to the studio - nor Pixar have been recognized.
In 2023, the award went to Pinocchio that Guillermo del Toro made with Netflix; the following year, in 2024, the Oscar went to Studio Ghibli with The Boy and the Crane; in 2025, the award went to the Latvian film Flow, and this year Netflix has repeated with K-Pop Warriors,which has become the most-watched film in the platform's history and has just announced that it will have a sequel with Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans as directors and screenwriters once again.
Although it seems that this sequel will not arrive until 2029 due to the complexity of animating the warriors, the global animation phenomenon has more than enough reasons to celebrate. Not only for surpassing 230 million views on Netflix but also for the recognition received from these Oscars. "For those who are like me, I'm very sorry that it took so long for you to see yourselves in a film like this," Maggie Kang stated when receiving the award. Her colleague Appelhans added, "Movies have the power to connect us... across borders."
The performance of the three South Korean artists was one of the few musical spectacles at this year's Oscar ceremony - with a very enthusiastic Teyana Taylor in the front row next to Leonardo DiCaprio-. When the chorus of Golden exploded, the Dolby theater was bathed in a fluorescent yellow from the flashlights carried by the attendees.
"Many laughed at me, even within K-Pop, but here we are. We have created all the lyrics and brought these songs to life, speaking of resilience and success," stated the composer of the song, EJAE, who was the only one allowed to speak during the speech as the organization cut off the rest of the people on stage despite their insistence on continuing with their words.