“KPop Demon Hunters” continues slaying the competition, going “up, up, up” from streaming success to awards-season recognition.

At the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards, the film won best motion picture — animated and best original song — motion picture for “Golden.” It was also nominated for outstanding cinematic and box office achievement, as Deseret News previously reported.

Best motion picture — animated

Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans accepted the Golden Globe alongside the film’s producer, Michelle Wong.

“Through this film, we really wanted to depict female characters the way that we know women, which is really strong and bold, really silly and weird, and really hungry for food and sometimes a little thirsty,” Kang shared in the trio’s acceptance speech.

When later asked about a potential sequel, the group didn’t share any details. However, when asked what they would like to carry into the second film, Appelhans shared, “A lot of times we made a movie that was filled with everything we wrote; it was a very personal subject matter. I don’t know if you can control much else as a filmmaker; hopefully we’ll do it again,” per Deadline.

Backstage, Kang added, “We’re hoping that this film can open more doors for other filmmakers who have unique stories to tell from a different perspective,” according to Deadline.

Best original song — motion picture

The songwriters behind “Golden,” EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Ido, 24 and Teddy, won the Golden Globe for best original song — motion picture.

“When I was a little girl, I worked tirelessly for 10 years to fulfill one dream, to become a K-pop idol, and I was rejected and disappointed that my voice wasn’t good enough,” EJAE said in her acceptance speech. “So, I leaned on songs and music to get through it. So now I’m here as a singer and a songwriter.”

Commenters on X voiced support for the singer-songwriter, with one saying, “karma hits different when hard work finally pays off huh,” and another adding, “So happy this queen never gave up!”

The film previously won the same two categories at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards last week, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Fan reactions

Some fans celebrated the films successful night at the award ceremony while others mourned the losses of other deserving films.

One commenter defended the “Golden” win, sharing, “Golden won best song because it transcends film. My grandma hasn’t seen the movie and sings the song all the time. It won because it got over a billion streams in 6 months and has been sitting on billboard 100 since it dropped.”

Comments also poured in on Netflix’s post about the win, with one user calling the win “well deserved. great movie that even Netflix wasn’t expecting to blow up,” and another giving a simple nod of support: “yeah deserved.”

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ had a successful run

The supernatural K-pop fantasy had a meteoric rise after its release last June, skyrocketing to the top of Netflix’s Top 10 Most Popular Movies. After its first 91 days streaming, it had 352.1 million views, equaling 541.8 million hours watched, as previously reported by the Deseret News.

The story follows the adventures of demon-hunting K-pop trio HUNTR/X, Rumi, Mira and Zoey, voiced by Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young, respectively, with the singing performances from EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami.

The team behind the screen is no stranger to awards attention. The film recently earned a 2026 Grammy nomination, becoming only the second K-pop group to receive the honor, setting them up to become the first K-pop group to take home the award, as the Deseret News previously reported.

“KPop Demon Hunters” also dominated the box office during its two-day theatrical release in August. By September, it became the longest-running title on Netflix’s Top 10 on the English-language films chart. The musical fantasy also sits atop the global list of Netflix’ Top 10 Most Popular Movies, as previously reported by Deseret News.