^{Credit: Arco (Neon), KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation), Win or Lose (Disney+, Pixar Animation Studios)} 

As presenter Ralph Faraqhar put it, “It’s a bad year to be in the same category as KPop Demon Hunters.” Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans' film dominated the 53rd Annie Awards with ten wins, coming out on top in every category it was nominated for. This included Best Feature, beating out The Bad Guys 2, Elio, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, and Zootopia 2​​​​​​. As far as features go, Pixar’s Coco holds the all-time record for the most Annie wins (Eleven). KPop Demon Hunters has now tied for second place with How to Train Your Dragon, The Incredibles, Inside Out, Kung Fu Panda, Mulan, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

KPop Demon Hunters marks Netflix's third win in the Best Feature category after Klaus and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. It's the fourth for Sony Pictures Animation after the two Spider-Verse films and The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Perhaps most notably, KPop Demon Hunters is the first film since Frozen to win the Best Feature Annie Award that had a female co-director. Before that, the last female-co-directed film to win the top Annie was Shrek. They remain the only three, although Jennifer Yuh Nelson also won in the directing category for Kung Fu Panda 2 in 2012. 

The Oscar-nominated Little Amélie might've stood a better chance at taking home the Best Feature - Independent Annie had it been submitted in that category. Fellow Oscar nominee Arco had little trouble winning the Indie Annie, beating A Magnificent Life, I Am Frankelda, Lost in Starlight, and Scarlet. In the short categories, Best Student Film went to A Sparrow’s Song and Best Short Subject went to Snow Bear. The win for Snow Bear was a nice acknowledgement considering that it got left out at the Oscars after making the shortlist. Ironically, it beat out the Oscar-nominated The Girl Who Cried Pearls. 

One of the few categories that KPop Demon Hunters wasn't nominated for was Best Storyboarding — Feature, which The Bad Guys 2 won. This continues an interesting trend at the Annies. For the past five years, the film that went on to win Best Feature wasn't nominated for its storyboards. This enabled Despicable Me 4, The Boy and the Heron, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Encanto to win in the storyboarding category. Whatever wins Best Feature will likely win every other Annie for which it's nominated, however. This is another trend that KPop Demon Hunters kept going. 

Zootopia 2 and Little Amélie went home empty-handed this year, each being nominated for seven Annies. Despite tying KPop Demon Hunters for this year's most Annie nominations, none of Elio’s ten nominations materialized into wins. A few years ago, Raya and the Last Dragon lost all ten of its Annie bids. Elio and Raya aren’t the biggest losers in Annie history, however. That would be The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which got thirteen Annie nominations in 1996, taking home zero.

Although Elio goose-egged, Pixar had better luck with their miniseries Win or Lose. It won three Annies, including Best Limited Series. Best TV/Media — Preschool went to Wow Lisa, Best TV/Media — Children went to The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, and Best TV/Media – Mature went to Common Side Effects. In Best Special Production, the winner was Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical. Love, Death + Robots also won three Annies, a highlight being when Edgar Martins’ twin brother accepted an award of his behalf.  

Former ASIFA-Hollywood president Frank Gladstone presented the June Foray Award to producer Sandy Rabins "for the AnimAID effort to assist and support those in the animation industry who were affected by the L.A. Wildfires." Gladstone gave out the Special Achievement Award to the annual LightBox Expo as well. The Japanese company Wacom (produced way kaam) received the Ub Iwerks Award for "manufacturer of the Cintiq graphics tablet and other products that have become an integral part of animation production worldwide." A grant program was also named after the late Will Ryan, a legendary voice actor and past ASIFA-Hollywood president. 

Among this year's Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award winners were Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, Spider-Verse), Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle, Father and Daughter), and Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Wild Robot). You could tell presenter Tia Carrere was the most excited about Sanders. She voiced Nani in the original Lilo & Stitch and made an on screen appearance in the live-action remake. Sanders gave perhaps the most emotional speech of the night, with shoutouts to the late Roger Allers, Kelly Asbury, Joe Grant, and Joe Ranft. 

As for the ceremony itself, Craig Robinson kicked off the evening with a piano ditty that gave me déjà vu of Darryl on keyboards in The Office. Robinson was also nominated for his voice performance as Baloney Tony from In Your Dreams, although he lost to Arden Cho for her work as Rumi in KPop Demon Hunters. Cho cheekily apologized in her speech to everyone their film was nominated against. Patrick Warburton got the biggest laughs of the evening with several jokes at the expense of his former Emperor’s New Groove co-star, David Spade. Another standout presenter was Juliano Krue Valdi, who voiced the titular character in Arco. I’d be lying if I said I was looking forward to the Michael Jackson biopic. Watching Valdi do the moonwalk, though, it’s clear why he landed the role of young Jackson. SNL veteran Laraine Newman closed out the ceremony, looking less than surprised when she presented the final Annie to KPop Demon Hunters. 

For more information about the 2026 Annie Awards, you can download this year's program here. Check out the full list of winners below: 

Best Feature
KPop Demon Hunters

Best Feature - Independent 
Arco

Best Direction - Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans)

Best Direction — TV/Media
Common Side Effects (Episode: "Cliff's Edge," Vincent Tsui)

Best Special Production
Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical

Best TV/Media — Preschool
Wow Lisa (Episode: “Rainy Day”)

Best TV/Media — Children
The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball (Episode: “The Rewrite”)

Best TV/Media — Mature
Common Side Effects (Episode: “Pilot“)

Best TV/Media — Limited Series
Win or Lose (Episode: “Episode 8: Home”)

Best Short Subject
Snow Bear (Aaron Blaise)

Best Student Film
A Sparrow’s Song (Student Director: Tobias Eckerlin, Student Producer: Tobias Eckerlin, School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH)

Best Sponsored 
Olipop Yeti

Best FX — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (Filippo Maccari, Nicola Finizio, Simon Corbaux, Naoki Kato, Daniel La Chapelle)

Best FX — TV/Media
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age (Adrien Annesley, Alvise Avati, Riyad Chalakkara, Daniel Mizuguchi, Liam Russell)

Best Character Animation — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (Ryusuke Furuya)

Best Character Animation — TV/Media
Win or Lose (Alli Sadegiani)

Best Character Animation — Live-Action
How to Train Your Dragon (Kayn Garcia, Jean-Denis Haas, Meena Ibrahim, Nathan McConnel, Nick Tripodi)

Best Character Animation — Video Game
South of Midnight (Mike Jungbluth, Sebastien Dussault, Vincent Schneider, Remi Edmond)

Best Character Design — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (Scott Watanabe, Ami Thompson)

Best Character Design — TV/Media
Love, Death + Robots (Episode: “400 Boys Blur Studio,” Robert Valley)

Best Music — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (KPop Demon Hunters Music Team)

Best Music — TV/Media
Win or Lose (Ramin Djawadi, Shane Eli, Jonny Pakfar)

Best Production Design — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (Helen Chen, Dave Bleich, Wendell Dalit, Scott Watanabe, Celine Kim)

Best Production Design — TV/Media
Love, Death + Robots (Episode: “How Zeke Got Religion,” Gigi Cavenago)

Best Storyboarding — Feature
The Bad Guys 2 (Anthony Holden, Young Ki Yoon)

Best Storyboarding — TV/Media
Love, Death + Robots (Episode: “How Zeke Got Religion,” Edgar Martins)

Best Voice Acting — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters - Arden Cho (Character: Rumi)

Best Voice Acting — TV/Media
Bob’s Burgers - Dan Mintz (Episode: “Don't Worry Be Hoopy,” Character: Tina Belcher)

Best Editorial — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (KPop Demon Hunters Editorial Team)

Best Editorial — TV/Media
Common Side Effects (Episode: “Raid,” Tony Christopherson, Joie Lim)

Best Writing — Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans)

Best Writing — TV/Media
Common Side Effects (Episode: "Pilot," Joe Bennett, Steve Hely)

Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Available Now!