No one was more unprepared for KPop Demon Hunters‘ ascension to the top of the Oscar leaderboards and Billboard charts than the Netflix film’s cast and creators. The singers who provided the vocals for the film’s fictional K-pop girl group Huntr/x — Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami — are becoming household names following the soundtrack’s chart domination and performances this week on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Meanwhile, directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans have been welcomed into the industry by the likes of animation legend Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Wild Robot) and Sinners director Ryan Coogler. Rumors of a sequel and a potential concert special and/or tour are also circulating. Will all of the film’s “Golden” success translate into award nominations next year?
“As a Korean creator and director, seeing Parasite win was just incredible,” Kang tells Gold Derby. “It makes me want to win for animation with a culturally Korean movie. I think that could be really cool.”
More from Gold Derby
Appelhans believes acknowledgment from the Academy would validate their early doubts in themselves. “The whole time we were making this, we felt like sometimes our ambitions were a little … like, ‘Can we do this?’ Weaving together the different ingredients and making them all sit together and work together was so hard. It’s been really nice in the last few months to hear from our friends and compatriots who can tell. Like, they know the craft of writing and music and film well enough to be like, ‘That was hard.’ That feels really good and above all, it’d be a nice affirmation that what we did was hard.”
KPop Demon Hunters currently ranks No. 2 in the Gold Derby standings for Best Animated Feature, with a 97 percent chance of scoring a nomination, while “Golden” is expected to be shortlisted for Best Song. The tune is also among the top 15 contenders for Record of the Year at the 2026 Grammys and remains No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the seventh week. The movie is still No. 1 on Netflix.
Best Animated Feature
Contender
Odds
1.
Zootopia 2
Zootopia 2
97.2%
2.
KPop Demon Hunters
KPop Demon Hunters
96.4%
3.
Arco
Arco
88.4%
4.
Scarlet
Scarlet
72.5%
5.
Elio 200
Elio
59.6%
Ejae, who wrote “Golden” and other songs on the chart-topping soundtrack in addition to providing the singing voice for Huntr/x leader Rumi, covers her mouth when the Oscars are brought up. “I’m going to faint,” she says with a sigh.
Likewise, Rei Ami, the singing voice of Zoey, shakes her head, before saying, “I just think that is such a high honor. Not even many actors or actresses can even say that they were nominated, let alone won, so it just seems like this faraway dream that now is becoming more and more of an attainable thing, which, again. … Us as creatives in the industry? It’s just an honor.”
Audrey Nuna, Ejae, Rei Ami at the 2025 MTV Video Music AwardsGilbert Flores/Billboard
Audrey Nuna, who provides the singing voice for Mira, couldn’t resist heaping praise onto Ejae. “I’m just so proud of her,” Nuna says, touching Ejae’s shoulder. “Like, what an incredible writer.”
Ami echoes the sentiment before joking about the origin of “Golden,” which Ejae composed on the way to a dentist appointment. “We wouldn’t have anything to sing… if you never went to the dentist,” she said. “Thank god she gets those routine checkups.”
“Thank you, dentist,” Ejae says with a laugh. “I actually got gold fillings on that day. Isn’t that so crazy? It all was meant to be.”
KPop Demon Hunters has become a cultural moment, reaching beyond younger generations and fans of K-pop. The clip of Huntr/x’s “Golden” performance on The Tonight Show is approaching 10 million views on YouTube in just two days, while their brief cameo on SNL has 5 million. A quick TikTok search turns up videos of 70-year-old couples dancing to “Soda Pop,” sung by Huntr/x’s rival group Saja Boys. And don’t be surprised if you spot women of all ages wearing purple braided ponytails like Rumi this Halloween.
The range of the film’s fanbase is “on theme,” says Appelhans. “The movie is about the surprising connections you can make while being more vulnerable, by being more truthful, and by expressing yourself through music. We were at a press day at TIFF and a journalist from the Dominican Republic said one of the big things he’s noticed in his country is fathers and daughters watching it, and there’s very few movies that dads and 11-year-old daughters both want to watch voluntarily. So I feel like that was very rewarding. It’s very meta.”
Ami is convinced that the positive response to the film is reflective of the work that went into making it happen. “I think it’s the best situation of preparation and timing and luck,” she says. “It was a nine-year process of relentless belief in self and this idea, and protecting and standing behind this beautiful, incredible film. The years [Ejae] had to put in, the rewrites, the edits…”
Ejae, who was deeply involved in the project since before the pandemic, is proud to see the music and story resonate. “I was in it for four or five years,” she says. “Lots of blood, sweat, and tears. Everyone worked so hard, and to have everyone from all different ages loving it, and to be able to talk about it with every different age is really fun.”
Watch Gold Derby’s interview with Huntr/x’s speaking voices: Arden Cho, May Hong, and Ji-young Yoo
Best of Gold Derby
Sign up for Gold Derby’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Click here to read the full article.
