“In space no one can hear you howl with laughter!”
This is the queer animated scifi musical comedy you’ve been looking for. Co-writer-directors Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs made a splash at the 75th Berlinale with their debut feature, Lesbian Space Princess, which received its world premiere there last week. It went on to win the world’s most prestigious queer film festival prize, the Teddy Award, as well as coming second place in the Panorama Audience Award for Fiction Film.
The vibrant inter-gay-lactic adventure follows Saira (Shabana Azeez) who boldly leaves the queer bubble of her home planet of Clitopolis—and her overbearing, partygoing lesbian queen parents (Jordan Raskopolous and Madeleine Sami)—to save her bounty hunter recent ex-girlfriend Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel) from the clutches of the villainous—or are they just misunderstood?—Straight White Maliens who have taken refuge on the outer reaches of the universe. Severely lacking in self-confidence, Saira was smitten with Kiki, but it turns out that she was only using Saira for her dextrous hands. Nevertheless, the princess is determined to rescue her, but to do so she needs to unlock her own self-belief in order to manifest her royal birthright, the labrys, “the most powerful weapon known to lesbian kind”, which the Maliens demand in return for Kiki’s release.
Along the way, Saira encounters a slew of memorable characters including the misogynist, problematic spaceship (voiced by Moulin Rouge’s Richard Roxburgh), a relic of the 21st century, that she endures for her quest; a dark, unsettling version of inner-herself, her Head Monster (beautifully rendered in hand drawn style black and white); and gay-pop recluse, Willow (a wonderful Gemma Chua Tran), whose catchy mellow songs (with lyrics by Varghese) provide the swooning soundtrack for the film while commenting on the action. In a nice reveal, we hear one of Willow’s acoustic guitar strummed songs before they step into the frame, as if the music was being played right there “on set”.
Frequently hilarious, the film also has a lot of heart. Saira is a touching central character that draws us in with her anxieties and insecurities, voiced with nuance and tenderness by Azeez who gives the character’s queer coming of age arc some rich detail and palpable emotion. She’s a character who desperately needs to take heed of RuPaul’s mantra, “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else?” Speaking of Drag Race, Down Under and Global All Star’s Kween Kong injects a blast a energy, and that distinctive cackle, into her captivating voice work as drag queen, psychologist, and weapons expert, Blade in one of the film’s standout sequences.
With just two full-time lead animators as part of a team of five, what has been achieved with the visuals is truly impressive and the film’s appealingly cartoony style fits in well with the lively, gently rebellious vibe of the film. One of the most distinctive aspects of the feature is the time that Hobbs and Varghese give the comedy to breathe, with some of the scenes, especially those involving the Straight White Maliens, feeling like extended improvised comedy skits. For those who are tickled by those characters and the film’s brand of humour this will be a delight, but may feel drawn out for those who it doesn’t chime with.
Although starkly different in tone, Lesbian Space Princess has some of the same DIY punk spirit that made Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker so appealing. Hobbs and Varghese use the inverted, futuristic world of the film for some well-observed commentary about today, along with some cheeky adult humour, and a poiganant message of self-acceptance. At its core though, this is a joyous, raucous ride of queer escapism. Lesbian Space Princess boldly goes where no queer animated feature has gone before and the journey is a blast.
By James Kleinmann
Lesbian Space Princess world premiered at the 75th Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film and came second in the Panorama Audience Award for Fiction Film. Opens in select US theaters on October 31st, 2025. Read our exclusive interview with filmmakers Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs.