Can Anything Stop ‘KPop Demon Hunters’? And Other Burning 2026 Oscars Questions

After the surprising triumph of Flow at the 2025 Oscars — a Latvian, dialogue-free, modestly budgeted film that outpaced big studio heavyweights — the stage is set for what may be one of the most unpredictable Animated Feature races in recent history. As we look toward the 98th Academy Awards, here are several key questions we’re asking as we head into awards season.

Will Flow’s Win Resonate — Or Remain an Outlier?

Flow’s victory was exceptional for myriad reasons, challenging assumptions about scale, genre, and dialogue in animated features. But one film’s success doesn’t guarantee a trend. Will voters reward daring, minimalist works going forward, or revert to form and look to big-budget studio fare? The 2026 race may reveal whether Flow was a turning point or an exception.

Can anything stop KPop Demon Hunters?

Among this year’s contenders, KPop Demon Hunters stands out as the closest thing to a populist juggernaut. The film has everything voters have traditionally looked for: sharp visuals, massive fandom, global appeal, and a soundtrack already generating buzz for Best Original Song (“Golden”) and Score consideration.  The question doesn’t seem to be “Will KPDH get nominated?”, but rather “How many nominations can Netflix’s biggest-ever original film pick up?”  And would anyone be surprised if it were nominated or even won this year’s Animated Feature Oscar?

Which other films are being flagged as contenders?

A few key titles are emerging. Arco, the introspective French space odyssey that wowed festival audiences, remains a critical favorite. Disney’s Zootopia 2 brings high-profile studio power. China’s Ne Zha 2 is the highest-grossing animated film ever and may deserve a nomination for that achievement alone. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain was one of the buzziest films coming out of Annecy and has maintained that momentum this year. Another Netflix title, In Your Dreams, has yet to be released and could disrupt the picture in a big way. But with no single film seen as unbeatable, this could become a wide-open race shaped as much by campaign strategy as merit.

Will major studios retool their strategies?

After Flow’s win, major studios may be rethinking how they position animated features to appeal to modern-day Academy voters. Do they chase prestige and subtlety, or double down on crowd-pleasing spectacle? The Bad Guys 2, Elio, and Zootopia 2 represent classic studio playbooks, but they’ll be tested against subtle, more personal work from indie and international filmmakers. Do 2026 Oscars voters care about a film’s box office success (or lack thereof) or wider cultural impact the way that those of the past seemed to do?

What role will anime play in a year without Miyazaki?

Few Japanese filmmakers have had as strong a hold over the Academy as Hayao Miyazaki. With the Ghibli legend not part of this year’s conversation, can the field finally open to a new generation of anime voices? Auteur filmmakers like Makoto Shinkai and Masaaki Yuasa continue to expand the visual and emotional language of the medium, while franchise powerhouses like Demon Slayer remain box-office giants. The question is whether the Academy, historically cautious – or ignorant, depending on point of view – about anime, will finally embrace the breadth of Japanese animation, from personal expression to pure spectacle, without needing Miyazaki to guide them. Worthy contenders include former nominee Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet as well as Baku Kinoshita’s The Last Blossom and Yasuhiro Aoki’s ChaO, both Annecy standouts, and Kenji Iwaisawa’s 100 Meters. Although the list certainly doesn’t end there.

Where are this year’s stop-motion features?

At the most recent Oscars, Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail were nominated. Two years before that, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio both got nods, with the latter eventually winning. In the interim year, no film was nominated. This year’s field is thin, with a couple of standouts like I Am Frankelda, Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake, and Junk World performing well at festivals, although none have drawn much awards season buzz just yet. Will the two-nomination, no-nomination trend continue?

Are sequels in play or at a disadvantage?

With Zootopia 2 leading Disney’s campaign, we’re forced to revisit a common question: can sequels find a path back to the podium? If the film deepens the original’s social themes rather than repeating them, it could break the pattern. Despite recent nominations for Inside Out 2, Wallace & Gromit, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, none of those films were able to walk away with Oscar gold.

Which International Titles Have Impressed This Year?

A big deal at Cannes, although largely quiet since, Sylvain Chomet’s A Magnificent Life (France, Luxembourg, Belgium) had people talking over the summer. Felix Dufour-Laperrière’s Death Does Not Exist (Canada, France) just topped the Ottawa International Animation Festival competition. Shui Yu’s 2D feature Nobody looks stunning and broke box office records in China. Seth and Peter Scriver’s Canadian Endless Cookie is a blast of a film and has impressed at several major festivals. The list goes on, and with this year’s race feeling so wide open, all it would take is a bit of buzz for a dark horse to emerge.

Bottom line:

By Oscar night, we may have a breakout blockbuster, another international upset, or a critical darling sneaking through the noise. Whatever the result, this year’s race will test how far the category can stretch, and whether animation’s highest honor continues to reward the unexpected.