Korea came into Oscar nominations day with two shots at a historic morning. It ended with one very big win and one very quiet disappointment.
Netflix's "KPop Demon Hunters" landed nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for "Golden" at the 98th Academy Awards announced Thursday. The double nomination extended an awards season that had already seen the film sweep the Golden Globes and Critics' Choice Awards in the same two categories. With over 541 million hours viewed worldwide, the animated hit has been one of the most dominant titles of the season regardless of format or genre.
"Golden," performed by Korean American singer-songwriter EJAE who voices lead character Rumi in the film, spent five weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, making it the longest-running animated act chart-topper in the chart's history. In the Best Original Song category it will compete against songs from "Sinners," "Train Dreams," "Viva Verdi!" and "Diane Warren: Relentless."
For Best Animated Feature, the film faces "Zootopia 2," "Elio," Pixar's "Arco," and the French entry "Little Amelie or the Character of Rain." The field is competitive on paper, but the film's awards momentum heading into the nominations was already difficult to argue with.
The other half of the story is harder. Park Chan-wook's "No Other Choice," which had made the Academy's international feature shortlist in December and earned three Golden Globe nominations, was left off the final Oscar list entirely. The film goes home without a nomination despite the attention it received throughout the season. The five international feature nominees are Brazil's "The Secret Agent," France's "It Was Just an Accident," Norway's "Sentimental Value," Spain's "Sirat," and Tunisia's "The Voice of Hind Rajab."
Elsewhere in the nominations, "Bugonia" — Yorgos Lanthimos's English-language remake of Korean director Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 cult classic "Save the Green Planet!" — picked up four nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Emma Stone, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" led all films with 16 nominations, a record.
The 98th Academy Awards are scheduled for March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.