WHAT‘S HAPPENING
News & Events
SA made animated feature Lesbian Space Princess wins at Berlinale
04 March 2025
A team of first-time South Australian feature filmmakers has taken out one of the top prizes at the prestigious 2025 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), with animated comedy Lesbian Space Princess winning the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film.
The debut feature of SA co-writer/directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese and producer Tom Phillips of We Made a Thing Studios, Lesbian Space Princess is the second production to come out of the SAFC’s Film Lab: New Voices feature film initiative, supported by Screen Australia and Adelaide Film Festival.
It was announced late last year that Lesbian Space Princess was one of only three Australian features selected for the Berlinale. The film was part of the Panorama section, a program strand celebrating “daring, unconventional and wild” international cinema.
The Teddy Award is an international award recognising exceptional films with LGBTQIA+ themes and content, presented by an independent jury at the Berlinale each year. Lesbian Space Princess is the second SA film in recent years to win the esteemed award, following SA made and SAFC supported short Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) which won the Teddy Award for Short Film in 2023. Lesbian Space Princess also placed second in the Panorama Audience Award 2025.
Critics have had nothing but praise for the colourful comedy, with Hollywood Reporter deeming it a “hidden gem” of the Berlinale thanks to its “wickedly smart script”, while Variety labelled it “a testament to the power of independent filmmaking”.
In January, Variety announced that UK-based Blue Finch Film had acquired worldwide sales rights to the film, while Umbrella Entertainment have secured the Australian and New Zealand rights.
Featuring an all-star Australian voice cast, including Shabana Azeez (The Pitt, Birdeater), 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.”
