A group of first-time feature filmmakers from South Australia has secured one of the top prizes at the prestigious 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, often referred to as “Berlinale”. The animated comedy, entitled “Lesbian Space Princess”, took home the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film, and made all of us proud back here in South Australia.
“Lesbian Space Princess” is the debut feature of SA co-writer/directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese and producer Tom Phillips from We Made a Thing Studios. It’s the second production from the South Australian Film Corporation’s (SAFC) Film Lab: New Voices program, supported by Screen Australia and the Adelaide Film Festival (AFF), which aims to elevate the next generation of exciting and diverse SA filmmakers.
In “Lesbian Space Princess”, a space princess is removed from her sheltered life and thrust into a galactic adventure to save her bounty hunter ex-girlfriend from the “Straight White Maliens”. For its critically acclaimed success in presenting LGBTQIA+ themes and content on the big screen, the short film was awarded the Teddy Award, an international award recognising achievements in LGBTQIA+ cinema.
The film impressed critics and crowds alike at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2024, securing four sold-out “work in progress” preview screenings and the Audience Award for Feature Fiction. From the critics, there’s been nothing but praise for the colourful comedy, with Hollywood Reporter dubbing it a “hidden gem” of the festival.
This is the second time a South Australian film has won the award in recent years, following “Marungka Tjalatjunu/Dipped in Black”, which took home the Teddy for Short Film at Berlinale in 2023. “Lesbian Space Princess” also placed second in the Panorama Audience Award for most popular feature film.
“Lesbian Space Princess” also follows in the footsteps of SA-made and SAFC films selected for the Berlinale in 2023, including “Talk to Me” from SA’s Danny and Michael Philippou, “Limbo” by Ivan Sen, “The Survival of Kindness” from director Rolf de Heer and SA producer Julie Byrne.
Co-funded by the SAFC, AFF and Screen Australia, Film Lab: New Voices offers three SA filmmaking teams the opportunity to develop a low-budget film script over the course of a 12-month program. After the 12 months, one of these teams is selected as the recipient of a $600,000 screen production grant. The winner also has their film presented at the Adelaide Film Festival.
Congratulations to the Lesbian Space Princess team for making South Australia proud on the world stage.
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