Annie Awards: ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Already 8-For-8; Winners List Updating Live

The 53rd Annie Awards in 35 categories are being handed out tonight at UCLA’s Royce Hall, and Deadline is posting the winners as they are announced. See the list below.

Netflix’s juggernaut KPop Demon Hunters comes into the evening with 10 nominations — co-leading along with Pixar’s Elio — is flat-out dominating the ceremony, already going 8-for-8.

Netflix’s most popular film ever took the night’s first prize, for Production Design and then snagged — in a decided non-upset — Best Music. KPop Demon Hunters later added Best Voice Acting for Arden Cho as lead Rumi, along with Best Writing, Character Design, Character Animation, FX and editorial. The film has been viewed more than 482 million times, and its soundtrack has been streamed some 11 billion times (with a capital B). KPop‘s directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans were early presenters tonight.

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Since the Best Animated Feature Oscar category was launched in 2002, 14 of the 23 winners of the Annies’ marquee Best Feature prize – and seven of the past 13 – went on to claim the golden statuette. But last year bucked the trend as the Academy Award went to Flow over The Wild Robot, which dominated the 2025 Annies with seven nods. Flow, however, did win the Annie for Best Independent Feature back in February, along with Best Writing.

The first two TV awards of the night went to Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots, and later it added a third Annie – making it 11 overall to go with 17 Emmy wins. Win or Lose, Pixar’s first longform animated series also has three wins tonight, and Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects also has two wins. Other TV winners have included Fox’s Bob Burgers voice actor Dan Mintz and Hulu’s The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball Episode.

The evening’s first Juried Award, The June Foray Award, went to Sandy Rabins, animation and live-action producer and the founder of the AnimAID effort to assist and support those in the animation industry who were affected by the L.A. Wildfires. The group has raised nearly $700,000 so far. Named for the Annie Awards founder, the award is presented to people who have made a positive impact on the animation industry.

The first of three Winsor McCay Awards for lifetime achievement was presented to prolific Oscar-winning filmmaker Christopher Miller and Phil Lord of the Spider-Verse and Lego Movie franchises and many other films. The second went to Oscar-winning animator, writer and director Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle, short film Father and Daughter). The final McCay Award was four-time Oscar-nominated animation whiz and voice actor Chris Sanders, who has won five career Annie Awards including for The Wild Robot last year. The awards were presented by his fellow Lilo & Stitch actor Tea Carerre.

ASIFA-Hollywood‘s Special Achievement Award went to LightBox Expo, the annual event that brings the creative animation community of filmmakers together with animation students and fans.  

Wacom, manufacturer of the Cintiq graphics tablet and other products, later received the Ub Iwerks Award for technical achievement.

The juried award winners also are listed below.

ASIFA-Hollywood previously revealed the Animation Educators’ Forum Hall of Fame Class of 2026. They are Elmer Plummer, Doug Crane, Harry Love, Harold Whitaker and Nancy Beiman.

Created in 1972 by veteran voice actor June Foray, the Annie Awards recognize the animation industry’s most talented artists and storytellers. 

Here are the winners at the 2026 Annie Awards so far, followed by the remaining nominees:

Winners

BEST STORYBOARDING – FEATURE
The Bad Guys 2
DreamWorks Animation
Anthony Holden, Young Ki Yoon

BEST STORYBOARDING – TV/MEDIA
Love, Death + Robots Episode: How Zeke Got Religion Blur Studio for Netflix
Edgar Martins

BEST TV/MEDIA – LIMITED SERIES
Win Or Lose
Episode: Episode 8: Home
Pixar Animation Studios

BEST TV/MEDIA – MATURE
Common Side Effects Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions

BEST TV/MEDIA – CHILDREN
The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball Episode: The Rewrite
Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe

BEST TV/MEDIA – PRESCHOOL
Wow Lisa
Episode: Rainy Day

BEST WRITING – TV/MEDIA
Common Side Effects Episode: Pilot
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions
Joe Bennett, Steve Hely

BEST VOICE ACTING – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Arden Cho (Character: Rumi)

BEST VOICE ACTING – TV/MEDIA
Bob’s Burgers
Episode: Don’t Worry Be Hoopy
20th TV
Dan Mintz (Character: Tina Belcher)

BEST EDITORIAL – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters Editorial Team

BEST EDITORIAL – TV/MEDIA
Common Side Effects Episode: Raid
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment, and Williams Street Productions
Tony Christopherson, Joie Lim

BEST FX – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Production Company: Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
FX Production Company: Sony Pictures Imageworks
Filippo Macari, Nicola Finizio, Simon Lewis, Naoki Kato, Daniel La Chapelle

BEST FX – TV/MEDIA
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age Episode: The Big Freeze
Production Company: BBC Studios Natural History Unit
FX Production Company: Framestore
Edward Ferrysienanda, Kevin Christensen, Guy Shuleman , Benedikt Roettger, Kevin Tarpinian

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation, Netflix
Ryusuke Furuya

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – TV MEDIA
Win or Lose
Pixar Animation Studios
Alli Sadegiana

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – LIVE ACTION
How To Train Your Dragon
Production Company: DreamWorks Animation
FX Production Company: Framestore
Kayn Garcia, Jean-Denis Haas, Meena Ibrahim, Nathan McConnel, Nick Tripodi

BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION – VIDEO GAME
South of Midnight
Compulsion Games
Mike Jungbluth, Sebastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider, Remi Edmond

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Scott Watanabe, Ami Thompson

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Love, Death + Robots Episode: 400 Boys
Blur Studio for Netflix

BEST MUSIC – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
KPop Demon Hunters Music Team

BEST MUSIC – TV/MEDIA
Win Or Lose
Episode: Episode 6, Mixed Signals
Pixar Animation Studios
Ramin Djawadi, Shane Eli, Johnny Pakfar

BEST SPONSORED
Olipop Yeti
Screen Novelties & Passion Pictures

BEST SPECIAL PRODUCTION
Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical
WildBrain Studios in association with Apple

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – FEATURE
KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Helen Chen, Dave Bleich, Wendell Dalit, Scott Watanabe, Celine Kim

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – TV/MEDIA
Love, Death + Robots
Episode: How Zeke Got Religion
Blur Studio for Netflix

BEST SHORT SUBJECT
Snow Bear
The Art of Aaron Blaise

BEST STUDENT FILM
A Sparrow’s Song
Student director: Tobias Eckerlin
Student producer: Tobias Eckerlin
School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH

JURIED AWARDS

Winsor McCay Award
Michaël Dudok de Wit
Christopher Miller and Phil Lord
Chris Sanders

June Foray Award
Sandy Rabins

Ub Iwerks Award
Wacom

Special Achievement Award
LightBox Expo

ASIFA-Hollywood Merit Award
Jeffrey New
Haley Mirren Douthit

Nominees

BEST FEATURE

Elio
Pixar Animation Studios

KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Maybe Movies, Ikki Films, Distributed by Gkids

The Bad Guys 2
DreamWorks Animation

Zootopia 2
Walt Disney Animation Studios

BEST FEATURE – INDEPENDENT

A Magnificent Life
Mediawan, What the Prod and Bidibul productions

Arco
Remembers, MountainA France, France 3 Cinéma

I’m Frankelda
Cinema Fantasma, Warner Bros. Discovery, Woo Films, Cine Vendaval

Lost In Starlight
Netflix / Climax Studio

Scarlet
Studio CHIZU

BEST DIRECTION – TV/MEDIA

Common Side Effects Episode: Cliff’s Edge
Green Street Pictures, Bandera Entertainment and Williams Street Productions
Vincent Tsui

DAN DA DAN
Episode: Clash! Space Kaiju vs. Giant Robot!
Science SARU, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Distributed by Gkids
Fuga Yamashiro, Abel Góngora

Not a Box Episode: It’s a Boat
Silver Creek Falls Entertainment / Passion Pictures in association with Apple
Siri Melchior

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode: Rise of the Night Ninja
Nickelodeon Animation Studios and PointGrey Pictures
JJ Conway, Kevin Molina-Ortiz

The Quinta’s Ghost Short Film
Martirio Films & Illusorium films
James A. Castillo

BEST DIRECTION – FEATURE
Arco
Remembers, MountainA France, France 3 Cinéma
Ugo Bienvenu, Adam Sillard, Anaëlle Saba

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
MAPPA Studios
Tatsuya Yoshihara

KPop Demon Hunters
Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix
Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Maybe Movies, Ikki Films, Distributed by Gkids
Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han

Scarlet
Studio CHIZU
Mamoru Hosoda