^{Credit: KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation)}

KPop Demon Hunters has won another major award on its road to the Oscars. Michelle Wong achieved the PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures. The film's fellow nominees were The Bad Guys 2 (Damon Ross), Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle (Nominees TBD), Elio (Mary Alice Drumm), and Zootopia 2 (Yvett Merino). In the past two years, the PGA winner hasn't lined up with the Best Animated Feature Oscar winner. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Wild Robot won at PGA, while the Academy went with The Boy and the Heron and Flow. PGA otherwise has a solid track record, with 14 of 20 winners going on to win the Oscar. 

Other than the BAFTAs, where it wasn't eligible, KPop Demon Hunters has won almost every other precursor award, including Critics' Choice, the Golden Globe, the Annie, the ACE Eddie, the VES Society Award, and now PGA. The Producers Guild Award wasn't the only prize that KPop Demon Hunters won tonight. Production designers Mingjue Helen Chen and Dave Bleich took home the Art Directors Guild Award in the animation category. KPop Demon Hunters was nominated there against The Bad Guys 2 (Luc Desmarchelier), Elio (Harley Jessup), The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (Sean Haworth, Pablo R. Maye), and Zootopia 2 (Cory Loftis).

The NAACP Image Awards were held tonight as well, although their award for Outstanding Animated Feature went to Zootopia 2. The blockbuster sequel is likely the closest thing KPop Demon Hunters has to a challenger for the Oscar. Zootopia 2 previously won the BAFTA, but again, there might've been a different outcome had KPop Demon Hunters qualified. Quinta Brunson also won a NAACP Award for her voice work in Zootopia 2, while DreamWorks' Wednesdays with Gramps won Outstanding Short Form (Animated). 

The PGA Award for Outstanding Children's Program once again went to Sesame Street, winning over LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy: Pieces of the Past, Phineas and Ferb, Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical, and SpongeBob SquarePants. In the category's fifteen years of existence, Sesame Street has won almost every time. The sole exception was in 2021. Yet, it still went to a production with ties to the Sesame Street gang, Muppets Haunted Mansion. 

This year, South Park became the first animated series to receive a PGA nomination in the Best Episodic Comedy category. It was nominated alongside four live-action comedies: The Bear, Hacks, Only Murders in the Building, and The Studio. Unsurprisingly, The Studio came out on top. Yet, the fact that South Park could get nominated here is another reason why Comedy Central should seriously consider submitting it as a comedy series at this year's Primetime Emmys. South Park has already won the Outstanding Animated Program Emmy five times, but if it were ever to break into the Outstanding Comedy Series race, this would be the year. The PGA Awards suggest so, at least. 

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