KPop Demon Hunters has become a pop culture juggernaut this summer. Though the film had little fanfare ahead of its release, the Sony Pictures Animation release on Netflix quickly became a phenomenon, inspiring fans around the globe. The film was such a success that it inspired the streaming service to break its interest in movie theaters and screen the film across North America with a “singalong” version of the film. Though Netflix didn’t reveal exactly how much money it made, it was definitely enough for estimates to make it the #1 movie the weekend that it played.
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The success of KPop Demon Hunters on streaming and briefly in the theater has unsurprisingly made it an awards season player. The song “Golden” from the film was christened the “Song of the Summer” by MTV’s VMAs, while it has also collected countless accolades from critics’ groups along the way. Furthermore, KPop Demon Hunters has earned three Golden Globe nominations, five Grammy Award nominations, and ten Annie Award nominations. All that in mind, KPop Demon Hunters is on track for Oscar gold, but the film just took a major hit by becoming ineligible for the biggest prize of the night.
KPop Demon Hunters Can’t Be Nominated for Best Picture
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the full list of feature films that are eligible for the 98th Academy Awards. In total, 317 different movies can be nominated for awards at this year’s Oscars, but there’s some fine print to their latest announcement as only 201 of those 317 movies are actually eligible to be nominated for Best Picture. Absent from the list of films that can earn a nomination for the top prize? Unfortunately, KPop Demon Hunters. Though this is bad news for the film being among the ten movies that make that coveted list, that’s not the end of the road for KPop Demon Hunters on Oscar night.
The reason why KPop Demon Hunters isn’t on the list of Best Picture eligible movies is actually a simple one: there are more stringent requirements for movies to be nominated for the top prize than for the general Oscar nomination list. Included in those requirements is this: “a theatrical run of seven days, consecutive or non-consecutive, in 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets, no later than 45 days after the initial release in 2025.” Though KPop Demon Hunters did play theatrically in the first week of its release, it only did so in three markets, enough to qualify it for a general Academy Award run, but not enough to give it Best Picture eligibility.
It’s clear that this is the likely reason that KPop Demon Hunters isn’t actually available for Best Picture, as several other animated movies from Netflix also failed to make the list, including The Twits, Fixed, and In Your Dreams, despite all three being eligible on the General Entry list. Netflix does have other feature films present on the Best Picture Eligible list, however, including Ballad of a Small Player, Train Dreams, A House of Dynamite, Nouvelle Vague, and Frankenstein. All of these films completed the expanded theatrical requirement, though, which KPop Demon Hunters didn’t fulfill. Of note, the only animated movies that actually ARE eligible for Best Picture are the ones that secured wide releases, naturally, including Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, Elio, and Zootopia 2
Hope is not lost for KPop Demon Hunters to take home Oscar gold, however, as the film has already been shortlisted for the Best Original Song Oscar. The film is also still eligible to be nominated for Best Animated Feature, a nomination it will almost surely secure.
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