{"id":426442,"date":"2026-01-22T19:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/426442\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:09:09","slug":"sheridan-students-celebrate-oscar-nominated-grads-behind-kpop-demon-hunters-and-elio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/426442\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheridan students celebrate Oscar-nominated grads behind KPop Demon Hunters and Elio"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Students from Sheridan College\u2019s animation program in Oakville, Ont., are celebrating two films made by graduates that have been nominated for Oscars \u2014 and looking on with aspirations that one day, they could reach the same heights.<\/p>\n

KPop Demon Hunters and Elio, made by Toronto directors Maggie Kang and Domee Shi, both scored nominations for best animated feature film at the 98th Academy Awards. KPop Demon Hunters was also nominated for best original song for Golden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For fourth-year animation student Phoebe Yeonsu Lee, seeing a director like Kang reach the Oscars is deeply meaningful as a fellow woman of Korean descent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up with K-pop during my teenage years, when I was really young and it\u2019s really just exciting and a surprise to me because I did not expect my culture could be a big thing,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, [Kang] is really amazing and she\u2019s somebody that I could be like. I think she\u2019s a really good representation of animation students as well as Korean-Canadians. She gives me the feeling of the possibility [that] maybe I can be like her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sheridan alumni ‘doing incredible things’<\/p>\n

The Oscar nominations are part of Sheridan\u2019s legacy of producing award-winning filmmakers, according to Mario Positano, program coordinator of the college\u2019s school of animation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program is quite old, it\u2019s just over 60 years old,\u201d he said on CBC Radio\u2019s Metro Morning Thursday. \u201cEverywhere you go, every studio you go to, every event you go to, every festival you go to, we\u2019re always encountering alumni that are doing incredible things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"WomanSheridan animation student Phoebe Yeonsu Lee says she is proud of Maggie Kang’s Oscar nomination, as she relates to the story of KPop Demon Hunters (Samantha Lui\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Over the years, Sheridan College alumni have produced numerous award-winning projects, with directors like Chris Williams winning an Oscar for best animated feature for Big Hero 6 in 2015 and Domee Shi winning for best animated short for Bao in 2019. Shi was also nominated for an Oscar for her feature film Turning Red in 2023, which was largely inspired by her experiences growing up as a Chinese Canadian in Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Positano says many graduates end up going to work for animation studios across Canada in cities like Vancouver or Toronto. Others may go off to work in the United States in big studios like Pixar, DreamWorks and Sony Pictures Animation. Kang, who spoke to CBC Toronto in September 2025<\/a>, said she was scouted by DreamWorks Animation during her graduating year in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Positano says seeing filmmakers like Shi and Kang win awards like Oscars and Golden Globes motivates current students to strive for more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe give the students the freedom to explore in both of those avenues, keeping them current on the technology, but also holding them true to the art form,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAny one of them can do huge things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Students like Molly McCutcheon, who moved to Canada from Australia to attend the school\u2019s animation program, says the combination of KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 story and its strong female characters resonated with her.<\/p>\n

The film follows a hit K-pop girl group who moonlight as demon hunters to protect their fans from supernatural danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCutcheon adds she has since watched the film three times. She says seeing Sheridan graduates like Kang and Shi motivates her as an aspiring filmmaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does make you kind of delusional, like it can be me one day,\u201d she said. \u201cI think KPop Demon Hunters getting the critical acclaim must be so good for that. It gives you renewed hope that maybe your idea can one day reach that level of fame.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Academy Awards will be handed out on March 15 in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LISTEN | Sheridan animation students react to Oscar nominations:<\/p>\n

Metro Morning5:54’I feel seen’: Animation students celebrate KPop Demon Hunters, made by Sheridan graduate Maggie Kang<\/p>\n

Sheridan College animation students discuss the excitement around the success of KPop Demon Hunters, by Sheridan grad Maggie Kang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-426442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}