Sheridan students celebrate Oscar-nominated grads behind KPop Demon Hunters and Elio

Students from Sheridan College’s animation program in Oakville, Ont., are celebrating two films made by graduates that have been nominated for Oscars — and looking on with aspirations that one day, they could reach the same heights.

KPop Demon Hunters and Elio, made by Toronto directors Maggie Kang and Domee Shi, both scored nominations for best animated feature film at the 98th Academy Awards. KPop Demon Hunters was also nominated for best original song for Golden. 

For fourth-year animation student Phoebe Yeonsu Lee, seeing a director like Kang reach the Oscars is deeply meaningful as a fellow woman of Korean descent.

“I grew up with K-pop during my teenage years, when I was really young and it’s really just exciting and a surprise to me because I did not expect my culture could be a big thing,” she said. 

“For me, [Kang] is really amazing and she’s somebody that I could be like. I think she’s a really good representation of animation students as well as Korean-Canadians. She gives me the feeling of the possibility [that] maybe I can be like her.” 

Sheridan alumni ‘doing incredible things’

The Oscar nominations are part of Sheridan’s legacy of producing award-winning filmmakers, according to Mario Positano, program coordinator of the college’s school of animation. 

“The program is quite old, it’s just over 60 years old,” he said on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Thursday. “Everywhere you go, every studio you go to, every event you go to, every festival you go to, we’re always encountering alumni that are doing incredible things.” 

Over the years, Sheridan College alumni have produced numerous award-winning projects, with directors like Chris Williams winning an Oscar for best animated feature for Big Hero 6 in 2015 and Domee Shi winning for best animated short for Bao in 2019. Shi was also nominated for an Oscar for her feature film Turning Red in 2023, which was largely inspired by her experiences growing up as a Chinese Canadian in Toronto. 

Positano says many graduates end up going to work for animation studios across Canada in cities like Vancouver or Toronto. Others may go off to work in the United States in big studios like Pixar, DreamWorks and Sony Pictures Animation. Kang, who spoke to CBC Toronto in September 2025, said she was scouted by DreamWorks Animation during her graduating year in 2004. 

Positano says seeing filmmakers like Shi and Kang win awards like Oscars and Golden Globes motivates current students to strive for more. 

“We give the students the freedom to explore in both of those avenues, keeping them current on the technology, but also holding them true to the art form,” he said.  

“Any one of them can do huge things.” 

Students like Molly McCutcheon, who moved to Canada from Australia to attend the school’s animation program, says the combination of KPop Demon Hunters’ story and its strong female characters resonated with her.

The film follows a hit K-pop girl group who moonlight as demon hunters to protect their fans from supernatural danger. 

McCutcheon adds she has since watched the film three times. She says seeing Sheridan graduates like Kang and Shi motivates her as an aspiring filmmaker. 

“It does make you kind of delusional, like it can be me one day,” she said. “I think KPop Demon Hunters getting the critical acclaim must be so good for that. It gives you renewed hope that maybe your idea can one day reach that level of fame.” 

The Academy Awards will be handed out on March 15 in Los Angeles.