‘Demons Slayer: Infinity Castle’ Scores Shock Golden Globe Animated Feature Nomination; ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ ‘Zootopia 2’ Notch Double Nods

The Golden Globes announced this year’s nominations this morning, and the animation categories are already sparking conversation. The Globes’ animated feature winner often goes on to repeat at the Oscars. Flow did exactly that last year, so this set of nominees is worth paying attention to.

Below are the animation-focused categories, followed by a few takeaways.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED

• Arco (NEON)
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle (Aniplex, Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures Entertainment)
• Elio (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
• Kpop Demon Hunters (Netflix)
• Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (GKIDS)
• Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

CINEMATIC AND BOX OFFICE ACHIEVEMENT

• Avatar: Fire and Ash (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
• F1 (Apple Original Films)
• Kpop Demon Hunters (Netflix)
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Paramount Pictures)
• Sinners (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Weapons (Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema)
• Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)
• Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE

“Dream as One” – Avatar: Fire and Ash
Music & Lyrics: Miley Cyrus, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, Simon Franglen

“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters
Music: Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo, Park Hong Jun
Lyrics: Kim Eun-jae (EJAE), Mark Sonnenblick

“I Lied to You” – Sinners
Music & Lyrics: Raphael Saadiq, Ludwig Göransson

“No Place Like Home” – Wicked: For Good
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz

“The Girl in the Bubble” – Wicked: For Good
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz

“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams
Music: Nick Cave, Bryce Dessner
Lyrics: Nick Cave

Shocker: Demon Slayer – Infinity Castle

The headline-grabber this morning is the nomination for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle. The Globes have warmed to Japanese animation over the past several years, but this pick signals a real shift.

In previous years, the Hollywood Foreign Press tended to single out prestige-leaning titles like Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (the first non-English-language winner in the category) or Masaaki Yuasa’s Inu-Oh in 2022. Infinity Castle is something else entirely, a theatrical installment of a wildly popular anime TV franchise, not an auteur-driven standalone feature.

Its inclusion suggests the Globes may be expanding their definition of what “award-worthy animation” looks like. Instead of limiting recognition to arthouse fare, they’re acknowledging the cultural and commercial force of mainstream anime in much the same way they have done historically with Western studio films – Elio‘s nomination this year stands out. In many ways, this nomination sits closer to Zootopia 2 than to Inu-Oh, a notable evolution in the voting body’s sensibilities that will be worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Double Contenders: Kpop Demon Hunters and Zootopia 2

Two animated features, Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters and Disney’s Zootopia 2, scored both Best Animated Feature and Cinematic and Box Office Achievement nominations. That dual placement puts them in a strong early position as the awards season ramps up.

The Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category is still relatively new, but it has quickly become a marker of broad audience engagement. Animation doesn’t always break into this race, so seeing two films land here in the same year speaks to both titles’ cultural visibility.

Indie Presence

On the opposite end of the spectrum, European indie favorites Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain continue their impressive runs. Both have shown remarkable consistency across festivals and awards circuits this year, and their presence adds some much-needed diversity to a field that spans studio franchises, streaming originals, and international arthouse titles.