Five animated films compete for Oscar 2026, led by KPop Demon Hunters

The five finalists for the 2026 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature mirror the Golden Globe shortlist (minus Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle by Haruo Sotozaki). KPop Demon Hunters, co-directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, won the Golden Globe on January 11 and is Netflix's most-viewed original title with ~500 million views. It follows a female idol group fighting ancestral demons, with a soundtrack including Golden (Golden Globe for Best Original Song). Arco, directed by Ugo Bienvenu (born 1987), won the Cristal at the Annecy Festival; it follows a boy in a circular city, exploring memory as emotional architecture. Elio, co-directed by Adrian Molina, Domee Shi, and Madeline Sharafian for Pixar, features a shy boy mistaken for Earth's ambassador by aliens based on real microscopic life forms. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, adapts Amélie Nothomb's autobiographical novel, following young Amélie in Japan with minimal dialogue. Zootropolis 2, directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, expands the political allegory of the original Oscar winner (2017), exploring identity conflicts in the animal city. The winner will be announced on March 15.