Kpop Demon Hunters Is Sweeping the Award season With A New Oscar
The animated Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters won two Golden Globes, including Best Original Song for Golden—a win marked by emotional speeches about perseverance after rejection and a historic victory for Asian female directors.
The Netflix animated sensation KPop Demon Hunters solidified its award-season dominance by winning two Golden Globes at the 83rd ceremony: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for its chart-topping anthem, "Golden."
The victory for "Golden" delivered one of the night's most emotional moments. Songwriter EJAE, who fought back tears on stage, shared her personal decade-long struggle of rejection from the K-pop idol industry. "I was told my voice wasn't good enough," she recounted. She dedicated the award to everyone facing closed doors, proclaiming, "rejection is redirection," and ended by quoting the song's lyrics: "It's never too late to shine like you were born to be."
The win for Best Animated Feature was equally historic. Co-director Maggie Kang became the first Asian woman ever to win the category. In her speech, Kang thanked those who believed in "a movie so deeply rooted in Korean culture" and expressed pride in depicting strong, bold, and authentically quirky female characters.
These Globes triumphs follow the film's recent sweep at the Critics Choice Awards, where it won the same two categories. Since its June debut, KPop Demon Hunters has become Netflix's most popular film of all time, spawned multiple Billboard Hot 100 hits, and earned three Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year for "Golden." Its cultural impact was so profound that Netflix released a special sing-along version in theatres, which topped the box office twice despite the film's wide streaming availability.
The film's third nomination was for the newly introduced Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award, rounding out a stellar night that celebrated both its commercial success and its meaningful message of resilience and representation.