2026 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE (October)
It’s hard not to look at the existing and upcoming roster of animated films for 2025 and not feel like it’s one of the weakest in years. A handful of lazy sequels, very few high-profile original films, a significant Pixar flop and you have the makings of a pretty unexciting lineup this year.
Which is what makes the genuinely organic phenomenon of Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters well, phenomenal. While KPop stars are international favorites, there hasn’t been an animated film to his U.S. shores that has been able to capture the popularity, the sheer mania of the sensation. From its seemingly inauspicious debut on the streamer in June, a groundswell occurred that pushed the Netflix film into territories previously unknown: the box office. Among many of the film’s history-making accolades (and there are many) is that the film’s theatrical sing-along release in late August vaulted it to the top of the U.S. weekend box office with $19M, a first for Netflix.
But it’s on the music side that the film broke multiple records. On August 11, the song “Golden” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first #1 from a female KPop artist and the first #1 for a girl group since Destiny’s Child hit the top spot in 2001 with “Bootylicious.” But there was more to come. After the film’s soundtrack spent eight weeks at #2 it finally hit the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 but the next record the film had on its horizon turned back to the Hot 100 list. In the last week of August, four songs from the album (“Golden,” “Your Idol,” “Soda Pop” and “How It’s Done”) were simultaneously in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at one time, a first ever in Billboard history.
At an astonishing $2.2B, Ne Zha 2 isn’t just the highest grossing animated film of the year, it’s the highest grossing film worldwide of any film since 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water and ranks at #5 in the all-time list just behind Titanic but ahead of the likes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Infinity War. So why does it feel like a long shot for a nomination here? Of that massive haul, only about $23M of that comes from its U.S. release from A24. So while the film is an international hit, here in the states it was barely a blip. That of course isn’t much of a concern for the animated branch of the Academy, who consistently nominate non-English language features here with little to no box office blue print (several of which are contenders this year). Inversely, they’ve been known to actively snub some box office hits here, like Finding Dory, the sequel to the Oscar-winning megahit Finding Nemo.
Here are my 2026 Oscar nomination predictions in Animated Feature for October.
| 1. KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix) |
| 2. Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney) |
| 3. In Your Dreams (Netflix) |
| 4. Arco (NEON) |
| 5. Little Amelie or the Character of the Rain (GKIDS) |
| 6. Elio (Walt Disney/Pixar) |
| 7. A Magnificent Life (Sony Pictures Classics) |
| 8. Ne Zha 2 (A24) |
| 9. Scarlet (Sony Pictures Classics) |
| 10. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (Paramount Pictures) |
Other contenders: Animal Farm (TBD), Bad Guys 2 (Universal Pictures/Dreamworks Animation), Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (Anaplex of America), Dog of God (Cartuna), The Twits (Netflix)
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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