{"id":491755,"date":"2026-02-22T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491755\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:29:08","slug":"2026-annie-awards-winners-list-kpop-demon-hunters-sweeps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491755\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Annie Awards Winners List ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Sweeps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKPop Demon Hunters<\/a> is unstoppable.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix<\/a>\u2018s come-from-nowhere global animation<\/a> phenomenon swept this year\u2019s Annie Awards<\/a>, the animation honors handed out by the L.A. Branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, taking 10 prizes, including best feature.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pop musical, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, also won best direction, best music, best writing, best editorial and best voice acting for Arden Cho, who voices Rumi. It also swept the technical categories at the Annies, winning best FX, best character animation, best character design and best production design.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix launched the Sony-produced KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> last summer with little promotion or fanfare, but it became an overnight sensation and the streamer\u2019s most-watched movie of all time, with a reported 481.6 million views worldwide in the second half of 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tKPop indie competitor at the Oscars<\/a>, Ugo Bienvenu\u2019s hand-drawn French feature Arco<\/a><\/a>, won the prize for best independent feature at the Annies.<\/p>\n

\n\tA number of past Annie Awards<\/a> winners have gone on to win the best animated feature Oscar. The last Annie best feature winner to also triumph at the Academy Awards<\/a> was Guillermo del Toro\u2019s Pinocchio in 2023. Last year, the Annie Awards\u2019 top prize went to The Wild Robot<\/a>. The Oscars<\/a> opted for Annie best independent winner Flow.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the television categories, notable winners included Adult Swim\u2019s Common Side Effects, which won in the best TV\/media mature category; Hulu\u2019s The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, winner of the best TV\/media children honor; and Disney+\u2019s Win Or Lose, which took the best limited series prize. Wow Lisa, a Spanish-language Chilean show, which combines 3D characters placed within scale-model, crafted backgrounds, won the Annie for best preschool series.<\/p>\n

\n\tASIFA-Hollywood presented its lifetime achievement honors, the Winsor McCay Award, to Dutch writer and director Micha\u00ebl Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle), The Lego Movie and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs writer-directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord and writer-director Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, Wild Robot).<\/p>\n

\n\tSandy Rabins, an animation and live action producer, who was a driving force behind ASIFA-Hollywood\u2019s AnimAID, which provided assistance and support for those in the animation industry who were affected by the L.A. wildfires, received the June Foray Award for \u201csignificant and benevolent impact to the animation community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancement affecting the animation industry went to Japanese company Wacom, manufacturer of the Cintiq graphics tablet, which has become the industry standard for professional 2D animation, storyboarding and concept art.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnimation fair LightBox Expo received a special achievement award for bringing \u201cthe creative animation community of filmmakers together with animation students and fans.\u201d The ASIFA-Hollywood Merit Award is given by the board of directors to individuals for current and on-going service to the organization and the animation industry went to Jeffrey New and Haley Mirren Douthit.<\/p>\n

\n\tFull list of 2026 Annie Award Winners:<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST FEATURE \u2013 INDEPENDENT
Arco
Remembers, MountainA France, France 3 Cin\u00e9ma<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST SPECIAL PRODUCTION
Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical
WildBrain Studios in association with Apple<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST SHORT SUBJECT
Snow Bear
The Art of Aaron Blaise<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST SPONSORED
Olipop Yeti
Screen Novelties & Passion Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST TV\/MEDIA \u2013 PRESCHOOL
Wow Lisa
Episode: Rainy Day
Punkrobot<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST TV\/MEDIA \u2013 CHILDREN
The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball
Episode: The Rewrite
Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST TV\/MEDIA \u2013 MATURE
Common Side Effects
Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST TV\/MEDIA \u2013 LIMITED SERIES
Win Or Lose
Episode: Home
Pixar Animation Studios<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST STUDENT FILM
A Sparrow\u2019s Song
Tobias Eckerlin
Filmakademie Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg GmbH<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST FX \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Edward Ferrysienanda, Kevin Christensen, Guy Schuleman, Benedikt Roettger, Kevin Tarpinian
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age
Episode: The Big Freeze
BBC Studios Natural History Unit
FX: Framestore<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST FX \u2013 FEATURE
Filippo Macari, Nicola Finizio, Simon Corbaux, Naoki Kato, Daniel La Chapelle
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
FX: Sony Pictures Imageworks<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST CHARACTER ANIMATION \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Alli Sadegiani
Win Or Lose
Pixar Animation Studios<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST CHARACTER ANIMATION \u2013 FEATURE
Ryusuke Furuya
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation, Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST CHARACTER ANIMATION \u2013 LIVE ACTION
Kayn Garcia, Jean-Denis Haas, Meena Ibrahim, Nathan McConnel, Nick Tripodi
How To Train Your Dragon
DreamWorks Animation
FX: Framestore<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST CHARACTER ANIMATION \u2013 VIDEO GAME
Mike Jungbluth, Sebastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider, Remi Edmond
South of Midnight
Compulsion Games<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST CHARACTER DESIGN \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Robert Valley
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: 400 Boys
Blur Studio for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST CHARACTER DESIGN \u2013 FEATURE
Scott Watanabe, Ami Thompson
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST DIRECTION \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Vincent Tsui
Common Side Effects
Episode: Cliff\u2019s Edge
Productions<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST DIRECTION \u2013 FEATURE
Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST MUSIC \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Ramin Djawadi, Shane Eli, Johnny Pakfar
Win Or Lose
Episode: Episode 6, Mixed Signals
Pixar Animation Studios<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST MUSIC \u2013 FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters Music Team
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST PRODUCTION DESIGN \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Gigi Cavenago
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: How Zeke Got Religion
Blur Studio for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST PRODUCTION DESIGN \u2013 FEATURE
Helen Chen, Dave Bleich, Wendell Dalit, Scott Watanabe, Celine Kim
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST STORYBOARDING \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Edgar Martins
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: How Zeke Got Religion
Blur Studio for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST STORYBOARDING \u2013 FEATURE
Anthony Holden, Young Ki Yoon
The Bad Guys 2
DreamWorks Animation<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST VOICE ACTING \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Dan Mintz (as Tina Belcher)
Bob\u2019s Burgers
Episode: Don\u2019t Worry Be Hoopy
20th Television Animation<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST VOICE ACTING \u2013 FEATURE
Arden Cho (as Rumi)
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST WRITING \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Joe Bennett, Steve Hely
Common Side Effects
Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST WRITING \u2013 FEATURE
Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST EDITORIAL \u2013 TV\/MEDIA
Tony Christopherson, Joie Lim
Common Side Effects
Episode: Raid
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions<\/p>\n

\n\tBEST EDITORIAL \u2013 FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters Editorial Team
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tWINSOR McCAY AWARD
Micha\u00ebl Dudok de Wit
Christopher Miller
Phil Lord
Chris Sanders<\/p>\n

\n\tJUNE FORAY AWARD
Sandy Rabins<\/p>\n

\n\tUB IWERKS AWARD
Wacom<\/p>\n

\n\tSPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
LightBox Expo<\/p>\n

\n\tASIFA-HOLLYWOOD MERIT AWARD
Jeffrey New
Haley Mirren Douthit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KPop Demon Hunters is unstoppable. Netflix\u2018s come-from-nowhere global animation phenomenon swept this year\u2019s Annie Awards, the animation honors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[789,197452,112599,3042,49,48,75,2744,337,1316,18744],"class_list":{"0":"post-491755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-animation","9":"tag-annie-awards","10":"tag-arco","11":"tag-awards","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","16":"tag-movies","17":"tag-netflix","18":"tag-oscars"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491755","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=491755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}