South Australian animated comedy film Lesbian Space Princess, from first-time feature filmmakers writer-directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, alongside producer Tom Phillips of We Made a Thing Studios, premiered this month at the prestigious 2025 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) and won the TEDDY AWARD (the world’s oldest and most prestigious queer film award) for Best Feature Film at the 2025 Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival.
The first full-length animated feature film made in South Australia, Lesbian Space Princess is one of only three Australian feature films selected for the Berlinale in 2025.
The film was selected for Berlinale’s Panorama section, a program strand celebrating “daring, unconventional and wild” international cinema. The Berlinale program selection for Lesbian Space Princess is the latest international festival honour for co-writer/director Leela Varghese, whose SAFC supported short film I’m The Most Racist Person I Know is also set to premiere at the SXSW Festival in March.
Writer/directors Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese, and producer Tom Phillips said:
“Our small, amazing local team and cast poured so much love and hard work into this project. Having it shown on an international stage at a festival we could only have dreamed of being part of is truly incredible.”
Lesbian Space Princess is the second production to emerge from Film Lab: New Voices, a first-feature film initiative from the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), with additional funding from the Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) and Screen Australia. The programme is designed to elevate the next generation of diverse and exciting South Australian filmmakers. It follows the inaugural Film Lab film, sci-fi Monolith, which had its international premiere in the official selection at SXSW 2023 after its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2022. Monolith was later released in cinemas in Australia and the US, cementing writer Lucy Campbell, director Matt Vesely, and producer Bettina Hamilton as talent to watch.
Building Global Buzz
Arriving at Berlinale with significant buzz, Lesbian Space Princess impressed both critics and audiences at the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival in October, where it enjoyed four sold-out “work-in-progress” preview screenings and won the Audience Award for Feature Fiction.
In January, Variety announced that UK-based Blue Finch Film had acquired worldwide sales rights to the film, while Umbrella Entertainment secured the Australian and New Zealand rights.
Featuring an all-star voice cast, including Shabana Azeez (The Pitt), Gemma Chua-Tran (Heartbreak High), comedy group Aunty Donna, and drag queen Kween Kong, Lesbian Space Princess follows introverted Princess Saira, who is thrust out of her sheltered life and into a galactic quest to save her bounty-hunter ex-girlfriend from the “Straight White Maliens.”
The reviews are in and they are glowing, Boyd Van Hoeij of Screen Daily called it:
“A colourful and life-affirming crowdpleaser”
And Roberto Tyler Ortiz of Loud and Clear said it was:
“A wildly absurd, unapologetically queer sci-fi adventure that doubles as a hilarious and heartfelt journey of self-discovery”
David Opie of IndieWire said:
Where “Lesbian Space Princess” does excel — as you might expect and hope for — is in the way it explores queerness itself. By presenting this world as a rare queer utopia in fantasy and sci-fi, the film sets itself apart as a story that viscerally feels like it was made by and for queer people.
A Legacy of Berlinale Success
The film follows in the footsteps of acclaimed SA-made and SAFC-supported films that were selected for Berlinale in 2023, including:
- Talk to Me from South Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou
- Limbo by Ivan Sen
- The Survival of Kindness by director Rolf de Heer and SA producer Julie Byrne, which won the FIPRESCI Jury Prize
- Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black), from SA director Derik Lynch, co-directed, co-written, and produced by Matthew Thorne of Other Pictures, produced by Patrick Graham, and executive produced by Duncan Graham of Switch Productions, which won both the Silver Bear Jury Prize and the Teddy Award for Short Film
Industry Leaders Celebrate
Leanne Saunders, SAFC Head of Production and Development, said:
“We are thrilled to see such significant international recognition for Lesbian Space Princess, the latest exciting film to come out of the Film Lab: New Voices programme. Film Lab: New Voices is just one of the ways the South Australian Film Corporation is working to grow the capability and diversity of the South Australian screen sector by fostering and upskilling innovative new filmmaking talent.
“Following the incredible international success of Monolith, we are delighted that this initiative is continuing to demonstrate its strength as a career-launching programme. I congratulate South Australian writers and directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, producer Tom Phillips, and the entire team on this prestigious honour.”
Mat Kesting, CEO and Creative Director of the Adelaide Film Festival, added:
“Adelaide Film Festival is thrilled to see the elevation of new voices in cinema, and Lesbian Space Princess is a terrific example of the extraordinary creative talent that exists in South Australia. We are certain Berlin audiences—including market buyers and investors—will be enamoured with this witty, highly creative, and distinctive film, just as audiences at AFF 2024 were when it won the festival’s Audience Prize.
“The international premiere at the A-list Berlinale film festival is career-defining recognition for co-directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese and producer Tom Phillips, alongside all their talented collaborators. They join other debut teams supported through the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund who, over the last decade, have presented their work at Berlinale—most notably the teams behind 2014’s 52 Tuesdays (dir. Sophie Hyde) and 2022’s Talk to Me (dirs. Danny and Michael Philippou).”
Louise Gough, Screen Australia’s Director of Narrative Content, said:
“We’re thrilled to see Lesbian Space Princess selected for Berlinale—a reflection of the creativity and innovation emerging from the Australian screen sector. This animated feature, developed through the South Australian Film Corporation’s Film Lab: New Voices programme in collaboration with Adelaide Film Festival, exemplifies how we are nurturing fresh, diverse voices in storytelling.
“Congratulations to Emma, Leela, Tom, and the entire cast and crew. We are incredibly proud to support projects that push boundaries and capture global attention, and Lesbian Space Princess is a fantastic showcase of what Australian talent can achieve on the world stage.”
Production & Funding
Lesbian Space Princess is a We Made a Thing Studios production, with principal production funding from Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation, in association with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund.
To find out more about filming in South Australia visit the SAFC’s Locations Gallery online at safilm.com.au/locations or contact SAFC Head of Production and Development, Leanne Saunders, at [email protected]