KPop Demon Hunters kicked off 2026 just as “Golden” as 2025 was for the film, nabbing two wins at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards.
The film from Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation took home the award for best song and best animated feature.
EJAE, the singing voice for main character Rumi and a songwriter on several of the film’s songs, and her co-writer on “Golden” Mark Sonnenblick accepted the best original song award. Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami — the other singing voices of KPop Demon Hunters’ fictional K-pop girl group, Huntrix — joined the pair on stage. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans brought the voice and singing cast out to accept the animated feature awards.
“When writing this song, I found myself living vicariously through my character Rumi. Her life and journey in the movie felt deeply familiar to me,” EJAE told the crowd when accepting best song. “The song needed to be an expression of hope to convince herself that she could write and reach for her dreams. In many ways, it did the same for me, but most importantly for it to be giving hope so many people around the world is truly the greatest honor.”
KPop Demon Hunters has become Netflix’s most popular title ever. The project chronicles the adventures of Huntrix, a K-pop girl group made up of three members who also just happen to fight monsters from the underworld. In addition to topping the Netflix charts, its soundtrack spent several weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart. “Golden” also hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news in August that a sequel film is in talks at Netflix and Sony Animation, and it was later confirmed that the directors and studio had confirmed their deals with the streamer for the next installment.
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