Despite record-breaking box office success and strong awards-season visibility, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 failed to secure a nomination at the 98th Academy Awards.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees during a livestream on Jan 22, 2026, naming Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ KPop Demon Hunters among the five contenders for Best Animated Feature Film. The film also received a nomination in the Original Song category for “Golden.”
The remaining nominees in the animated feature category are Zootopia 2, Elio, Arco, and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.
The Oscars ceremony is scheduled to take place on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Notably absent from the list were Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc, the only two Japanese anime films widely considered eligible for nominations this year, marking a major setback for anime in the Best Animated Feature Film race.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle was one of the most commercially successful films of 2025, grossing more than $779.5 million worldwide. It ranked as the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year and became the highest-grossing international film ever released in the United States, surpassing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
The film also set multiple industry records, including becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time worldwide, the highest-grossing R-rated animated film, and the first R-rated non-American animated film to cross the $700 million mark globally.
The film’s Oscars shutout follows a similar outcome earlier in the awards season. At the Golden Globe Awards, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle lost the Best Motion Picture – Animated award to KPop Demon Hunters.
Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc also posted strong box office numbers, earning more than $174.7 million worldwide and ranking as the 13th highest-grossing Japanese film of all time.
The absence of anime titles in this year’s lineup continues a broader trend at the Oscars.
In 2025, no anime films were nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, despite five anime movies being eligible, including Look Back, The Colors Within, Ghost Cat Anzu, The Imaginary and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
In recent years, anime representation in the category has been limited. Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron won the Best Animated Feature Film award at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024, marking the director’s second Oscar win following Spirited Away in 2003. It was also the only anime film nominated that year.
From 2020 through 2023, no anime films received nominations in the category.
Before The Boy and the Heron, Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai was the last anime film to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film, in 2019.
