South Korea celebrates the ‘miraculous’ Oscar win for KPop film Demon Hunters | Oscars 2026

Two Oscar wins for the hit KPop film Demon Hunters were met with jubilation in South Korea, where the film was hailed as a cultural “miracle” and a win for the country’s artistic exports.

Local newspaper headlines declared the film had reached “peak symptoms” after its double win at the Oscars on Sunday.

The Hankyung Economic Daily praised the “miracle” that cemented South Korea’s growing cultural influence on the world stage.

The animated fantasy film won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song at the Academy Awards. The Netflix hit has become the most-watched film on the platform, with more than 500 million views worldwide.

The production was American, co-directed by Korean-Canadian Maggie Kang and featuring several Korean and Korean-American voice actors, but relied heavily on Korean aesthetics and traditional culture.

Film critic Yoon Seung-eun told Yonhap News Agency that the sweep of the Golden Globes, Grammys and Academy Awards showed that global audiences not only recognized KPop Demon Hunters’ popularity, but also its artistic merits.

Pop culture critic Jung Duk-hyun also told Yonhap that the film represents a “textbook case for elevating local culture to the global level.”

The Oscars ceremony also included a performance of the golden KPop anthem Demon Hunters, which won Best Original Song, featuring 24 dancers, pansori vocals and drumming, while stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg and Emma Stone were seen waving K-pop light sticks in the audience – bringing Korean culture to the heart of Hollywood.

“Even if the South Korean government tried to buy that prime-time slot, such a performance would be impossible,” Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted Lee Dong-jin, another film critic, as saying.

Kang’s acceptance speech and her declaration that “this is for Korea and Koreans everywhere” were widely circulated. But the jubilation was dampened somewhat by anger at the party’s treatment of Golden’s authors.

After singer-songwriter Ijay gave her acceptance speech and passed the microphone to her fellow recipients, the orchestra immediately began playing for them offstage. The songwriters never got to speak, although they kept prepared notes.

Broadcaster Ahn Hyun-mo noted on entertainment channel OCN’s live coverage of the Oscars that although there were quite a few winners, the short film award winners from earlier in the night were allowed to speak longer.

Tourism data suggests that the film’s impact extends beyond entertainment. South Korea recorded 18.9 million foreign visitors in 2025, an all-time high that officials attributed in part to tourists keen to see the sites featured in the film.