I wanted to devote a post to KPop Demon Hunters, which was a global sensation for Netflix and is of course getting a sequel. It also won all the awards this season, and took home Best Animated Feature and Best Original song last night. Ejae and the songwriting team from Golden were the only people to get played off last night, which seemed like a pointed choice and I’ll leave it at that. There was an earlier acceptance speech that almost got cut short, but when the winners protested they were given more time to speak. What’s more is that two movies won for Best Documentary Short because there was a tie. In the clip that the Oscars put on YouTube, they cut it right after Ejae spoke. In the broadcast, Yu Han Lee was about to read from his speech and he got played off! The top comment reads “You guys had ten minutes for a Bridesmaids bit but couldn’t let this guy speak?”
Ejae said during her acceptance speech, “Growing up people made fun of me liking KPop but now everyone is singing our song in the Korean lyrics. This song is not about success it’s about resilience.” Aw! She was wearing gold Dior on the red carpet and she looked phenomenal.
Audrey Nuna was in a Thom Browne gown with a voluminous tiered skirt and a top with dripping gold sequins. I love how dramatic this was.
Rei Ami wore Rahul Mishra. This looked better on the red carpet than it does in still photos. I love how all the women coordinated in black and gold!
Here’s their performance of Golden! That song is such a banger.
May Hong, Ji-young Yoo and Arden Cho are the speaking voices of HUNTR/X. They coordinated somewhat too and were in black with pops of color. Arden is wearing Miss Sohee and Ji-young Yoo is in Carolina Herrera. Gorgeous!
photos credit: A.M.P.A.S./Avalon, SS/Avalon
The black and gold coordination🖤
I love them so much. Pipe dream is for BTS to have them as their opening act this summer.
Arden’s look was my favorite of the night. The edginess of the “scales” on the dress, combined with the more traditional elegance and drama of the embroidered poofy wrap, and all in an unexpected color scheme…perfection.
Ooh wow I love that blue dress and her bob is so chic. They all look great!
it looks like a modern take on traditional hanbok
All of the K-pop Demon Hunters ladies looked so good, and they had fun with it. I love all of it.
I was absolutely obsessed with Hunter/X’s red carpet looks. They were my favorite of the night. Audrey Nuna was just…wow spectacular.
Audrey has become my new style favorite because she wears edgy designs with immaculate styling and kills it every time.
It definitely sucks how they got played off, and eventually even the stage lights going off when they tried continuing over the music. I get that they only allow so much time for acceptance speeches but that was not necessary, but at the same time maybe they need to come up with a rule (or whatever you want to call it) that if it’s a whole team of people receiving an award there is a designated team member that gives the speech on the team’s behalf. Everyone trying to give their own little speech never works out, they almost always get played off, which results in unfortunate moments like this. Shorter bits & banter amongst presenters is a whole other issue that still isn’t streamlined enough.
I agree in theory, but as Celebitchy noted (and I definitely noticed while watching) another group started to get played off, kept talking, and were given time. Plus, there were *a lot* of skits that were a little cringy (I’m looking at you RDJ) that could have been cut for time. This sucked!
My younger daughter was absolutely furious that they got played off … especially because everyone else got the time they wanted to talk.
We are huge fans of KPop Demon Hunters in this house.
That is possibly the rudest, most mean spirited thing I have ever seen the Oscars do to a winner. So unnecessary. It was a huge, exciting acknowledgement for South Korean culture and the Oscars’ producers crapped all over it, turning it into a moment of humiliation on a global stage. Such an ugly American moment.
It was rude as heck and they took up too much time with Conan frankly. The sound was bad all night.
The sound was terrible! I thought maybe it was just my TV, but I’ve read other comments confirming it was lousy.
I’m so glad they got some love and awards, I was late to the party but completely sold once I did watch it. I put it on again at Christmas when my mum was with us and she’s also on board with how great it is!
Serious side eye at the choice to play them off and dim the lights but sure, we need a sad bit to promote the new Avengers film that no one seems to want. This film and its songs have been SUCH a phenomenon, let them shine.
That’s some serious BS and absolutely shameful… They tried to play off the K-Pop Demon Hunter team during their acceptance speech for Best Animated Film, too. Cut the junky filler material (Will Arnett and Channing Tatum, for example) and let the winners have their moment to shine.
Didn’t they come after the In Memorium, which had rambling tributes and blew the schedule to hell? They need to come up with a solution for multiple winners for one award. Either one person speaks or they get more time.
Also, it was an interesting experiment to have people giving tributes during the In Memorium. But we don’t need Billy Crystal listing off Rob Reiner’s filmography or Barbra Streisand telling a rambling Redford story. They are going to have to come up with a protocol for this as it’s going to be a mess as the booomers die off.
Found out what happened. Turns out that the Academy limits how many statues are given out. There’s a formula. Seven people? You share one statue. They all get to call themselves Oscar winners, but only one statue. EJAE accepted the statue, she got to talk.
They really need to work this sort of thing out beforehand, so the producers know who,lol be talking and for how long.
https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/golden-kpop-demon-hunters-oscars-2026-speech-interrupted-1236199919/