K-pop Animation, Norwegian Film Win At Oscar

KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 (Reuters) -- “KPop Demon Hunters” won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature on Sunday in Los Angeles, at  Hollywood's most over-the-top gala of the year, according to Reuters.

The glitzy celebration, which took place amid the United States’ (US) war with Iran, witnessed tight security in and around the ceremony after a federal warning of a possible Iranian threat against California.

“KPop Demon Hunters” capped a record-breaking run after becoming Netflix’s most‑watched film ever upon its 2025 debut.

The film’s soundtrack has trended worldwide. In a January 2026 press release, Netflix reported that “KPop Demon Hunters” broke records as its most-watched title over a six-month period, with 482 million views and 32 million views for the film’s lyric videos.

Animated by Sony Pictures Animation, the Netflix hit was directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans. Other nominees in the Best Animated Feature category include “Zootopia 2”, “Arco”, “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain" and "Elio".

 "Sentimental Value", directed by Joachim Trier, won the  Best International Feature Film, the first Norwegian film to win in this category after six previous nominations.

In the movie, Renate Reinsve plays stage actress Nora, who has a complicated relationship with her estranged father Gustav Borg, portrayed by Stellan Skarsgard, whose film-making career has waned. 

Other nominees this year were Brazil's "The Secret Agent", Iran's "It Was Just an Accident", "Sirāt" from Spain, and "The Voice of Hind Rajab" from Tunisia.

Documentary feature about a young Russian school teacher waging quiet resistance against Russia's war on Ukraine,  “Mr. Nobody Against Putin",  won the Oscar for  Best Documentary Feature.

The film, created by Borenstein and Talankin, uses two years of footage shot by Talankin to show how the Russian state indoctrinates students with pro-war messages. The videographer documents his own persecution and eventual exile in the film, which The Hollywood Reporter described as a "touching, intimate chronicle".

Other nominees for Best Documentary Feature this year were “Cutting Through Rocks,” “The Perfect Neighbour”, “The Alabama Solution”, and “Come See Me in the Good Light”.

Hollywood veteran Sean Penn won his third acting Oscar on Sunday for his supporting role as an obsessed military officer in the political thriller "One Battle After Another".

Penn, 65, plays Colonel Steven Lockjaw, a white nationalist who is in love with a Black revolutionary while hating everything she and her family stand for. The actor did not attend the Oscar ceremony.

First-time nominee Michael B. Jordan won the Best Actor Oscar for playing twin brothers in the genre-bending vampire tale "Sinners."

Jordan, 39, plays dual roles as war veterans Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore who try to use stolen money to open a juke joint in Mississippi during the Great Depression.

Jessie Buckley won her first Academy Award on Sunday, claiming the Best Actress trophy for her portrayal of playwright William Shakespeare's wife in "Hamnet".

The Irish actress played the free-spirited Agnes Hathaway, opposite Paul Mescal as Shakespeare, as the couple grieves the death of their 11-year-old son.

 Paul Thomas Anderson won the directing Oscar for "One Battle After Another", an offbeat action movie that is also the frontrunner for Best Picture.

The dark comedy about a former revolutionary racing to save his kidnapped daughter, inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland", tackles hot-button topics like immigration, race relations and the outsized political power of billionaires.

-- REUTERS