Completion Fund 2025 Recipient Announced

We are thrilled to announce the recipients of round 11 of the Queer Screen Completion Fund 2025.

Queer Screen has awarded the full $10,000 from this year’s Completion Fund round to the animated feature film LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS. The announcement was made at the Program Launch for Queer Screen’s 32nd Mardi Gras Film Festival, held at the State Library of NSW.

The low-budget film – about an introverted space princess who leaves her home planet on an inter-gay-lactic mission to save her ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens – was the standout submission this year, with the three-person jury unanimous in its decision to bestow it with the full grant amount.

Jury spokesperson, writer and director Sarah L. Walker (The Twelve and The Secrets She Keeps), described the project as a very worthy winner, adding that the funding will help to get the film seen. “I see Lesbian Space Princess as a perfectly timed and beautifully executed adventure into contemporary romance,” she said. “It’s funny, clever and broadly relatable: even the villains were drawn with humour and compassion.”

Post-production on the film is all but complete ahead of its World Première at the 75th Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) next month. Co-writer, co-director and co-producer, Leela Varghese, who accepted an oversized novelty cheque for $10,000, said the financial support provided by the Completion Fund would “make a big difference to our film”.

“Thank you so, so much, Queer Screen, for helping us get our project out into the world,” she said. “Queer Screen is so important to the LGBTQIA+ screen community, and we’re truly ‘over the moon’ to have their support for Lesbian Space Princess.”

“The belief in our project means so much to us, and we are so grateful to have an organisation that helps amplify queer voices.” Lesbian Space Princess was made by Varghese, together with fellow co-writer, co-director, co-producer Emma Hough Hobbs and producer Tom Phillips, as part of South Australian Film Corporation’s Film Lab: New Voices initiative.

The cast includes Shabana Azeez (The Pitt), Bernie Van-Tiel (Class of 07), Gemma Chua-Tran (Heartbreak High), Richard Roxburgh (Rake), Kween Kong (RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under), Madeleine Sami (Deadloch), plus comedians Jordan Raskopolous, Demi Lardner, Reuben Kaye and Aunty Donna (Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun).

The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) showcased Lesbian Space Princess, which is South Australia’s first animation, at the 2024 Cannes Marche du Film and screened ‘work in progress’ previews at the festival later in the year. The work in progress won the AFFs Feature Film Audience Award.

At Berlinale, Lesbian Space Princess will compete for the Panorama Audience Award for international selections and the prestigious Teddy Award for LGBTQIA+ films.

The Completion Fund’s independent jury, also comprised of Jonathan Page, producer, executive producer and owner of Bonsai Films (Of an Age, He Ain’t Heavy), and Sophia Zachariou, producer and executive producer (The Office Australia, Ladies in Black), wished the Lesbian Space Princess team well with the film’s World Première. 

Round 10 Recipients

Lesbian Space Princess

Awarded $10,000
Type Narrative Feature
Genre Animation, Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Director Leela Varghese, Emma Hough Hobbs
Producer Leela Varghese, Emma Hough Hobbs, Tom Phillips
Logline An introverted space princess is forced to leave her home planet on an inter-gay-lactic mission to save her ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens.

Co-writer, co-director and co-producer, Leela Varghese said “Thank you so, so much, Queer Screen, for helping us get our project out into the world,” she said. “Queer Screen is so important to the LGBTQIA+ screen community, and we’re truly ‘over the moon’ to have their support for Lesbian Space Princess.”

Since its inception in 2016, Queer Screen has awarded $172,000 in grants to 27 Australian projects

Round 11 of the Completion Fund will open in late 2025. To be notified and stay up to date, subscribe to our Filmmakers eNews.