The South Australian animated comedy film Lesbian Space Princess has been selected to premiere at the prestigious 2025 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival).
Lesbian Space Princess is the debut feature work of writers/directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese and producer Tom Phillips of We Made a Thing Studios. Described as a ‘queer as f*ck’ sci-fi comedy, it follows a space princess is thrust out of her sheltered life and into a galactic quest to save her bounty hunter ex-girlfriend from the ‘Straight White Maliens’.
It is so far the only Australian feature film to be confirmed for Berlinale in 2025 – one of the ‘big five’ annual international film festivals alongside Venice, Cannes, TIFF and Sundance. It’s been selected for Berlinale’s Panorama section, a program strand focused on ‘daring, unconventional and wild’ international cinema. It will thus be eligible for the Panorama Audience Award for most popular feature film, judged by the festival’s largest audience jury, as well as the Berlinale Teddy Award for LGTBQIA+ film.
Lesbian Space Princess is the second feature film to come out of the Film Lab: New Voices program, a low-budget feature film initiative from the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) and Screen Australia. The program, designed to elevate the next generation of South Australian filmmakers, offers three South Australian filmmaking teams the chance to develop their first low-budget feature film script through a 12-month skills development program.
At the end of the development phase, one team is selected to receive funding and a screening at the Adelaide Film Festival.Â
The New Voices program, co-funded by the SAFC, AFF and Screen Australia, first greenlit the sci-fi film Monolith, which had its international premiere at SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin, Texas in 2023 following its world premiere at Adelaide Film Festival in 2022.
It is now in its third year, with a new crop of three filmmaking teams currently developing their projects to be considered for selection to move into production for the Adelaide Film Festival in 2026.
The Berlinale program selection for Lesbian Space Princess is the latest international festival honour for SA’s screen sector, following last week’s announcement of SAFC supported South Australian film Jimpa, which was also supported by the AFF Investment Fund, and SAFC supported series Never Get Busted! both being selected to premiere at the prestigious 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
‘We are over the moon that Lesbian Space Princess is heading to Berlinale!’ said Hobbs, arghese and Phillips. ‘We are extremely grateful to the Film Lab: New Voices initiative—this film would not exist without the South Australian Film Corporation and the support of Adelaide Film Festival and Screen Australia.
‘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.’
ScreenHub: Jimpa, Never Get Busted! and Together selected for Sundance 2025
Lesbian Space Princess also follows in the recent footsteps of acclaimed and award-winning SA made and SAFC supported films selected for the Berlinale in 2023: Talk to Me from SA’s Danny and Michael Philippou; Ivan Sen’s Limbo; The Survival of Kindness from director Rolf de Heer and SA producer Julie Byrne, which won the FIPRESCI Jury Prize; and Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) from SA director Derik Lynch, co-directed, co-written and produced by Matthew Thorne of Other Pictures and 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.
Praise for Lesbian Space Princess
‘Congratulations to the team behind Lesbian Space Princess for being selected to have their world premiere at Berlinale,’ Arts Minister Andrea Michaels MP said. ‘The directors met with the team from Berlinale at the Made in SA showcase at the Cannes Film Festival, supported by the State Government, and it is an incredible achievement to have it screened in front of tens of thousands of people on the world stage.
‘Berlinale is one of the largest public film festivals in the world and such an accolade speaks volumes about the talent we have here in South Australia. Our government will continue to help create opportunities for our remarkable screen industry.’
ScreenHub: Lesbian Space Princess is second feature to be greenlit by Film Lab
Screen Australia Director of Narrative Content, Louise Gough, 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 Film Lab: New Voices program with Adelaide Film Festival, is an exciting example of how we are nurturing fresh, diverse voices in storytelling.’
Congratulations to Emma, Leela, Tom and all 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.’
Lesbian Space Princess is a We Made a Thing Studios Production. Principal production funding from Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation in association with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund.
