2025's Most Underrated Animated Movie Is Streaming For Free - But Won't Be At The Oscars

Directed by Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, "Lesbian Space Princess" has sadly flown under most people's radar (gaydar?), barely playing in theaters and not being submitted to the Academy Awards. However, this Australian animated queer sci-fi comedy is one of the funniest movies of the past year, and if your local library gives you access to Hoopla, you can stream it now for free.

The film's opening song announces our protagonist Saira (Shabana Azeez) is "a lesbian ... in space ... and she's also a princess! Oh, and she's very sad." Sad because of a break-up with bounty hunter Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel), neglect from her self-obsessed Queen moms (Madeleine Sami and Jordan Raskopoulos), and because she's such a nervous wreck that she can't even summon her magical labrys. But when Kiki gets kidnapped by a trio of Straight White Maliens, this unlikely protagonist goes on a mission to rescue her ex.

Balancing "Steven Universe" cuteness with "Rick and Morty" crudity, "Lesbian Space Princess" will strike a nerve with anyone who spent time on early 2010s queer tumblr. If you get why the film's Manic Pixie Dream Enby is named Willow (Gemma Chua-Tran) or crack a smile hearing that Saira's spacefaring vessel is a "Problematic Ship" (Richard Roxburgh), you're the target audience. The story's somewhat predictable but nevertheless effective, using expressive animation and great visual gags to dramatize Saira's mental health struggles.

Critics almost universally praised "Lesbian Space Princess," making it all the more shocking that it was overlooked on Looper's best animated movies of 2025 list. The film's had some awards success as well, including the 2025 Berlin Film Festival Teddy Award for LGBTQ+ cinema and picking up seven nominations including best film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. An Oscar nomination could have made a statement in a year where one of the big animated contenders, Pixar's "Elio," had LGBTQ+ themes censored out of the final film.

Yet when the 35 eligible entries for the best animated feature Oscar were revealed, "Lesbian Space Princess" was absent, despite playing for a week at New York's Cinema Village, which should qualify it in all categories outside of best picture. Why even go through the effort of any theatrical release if it wasn't for Oscar qualifications?

While we don't know the specific reason, we do know that it isn't the only 2025 movie distributed by Cineverse's Fandor brand to flunk an Oscar submission. "A Useful Ghost," another fantastical queer comedy well worth watching, was announced as Thailand's official submission for best international feature, but didn't make the longlist due to mishandling of submission documents. If Fandor messed up their Oscar paperwork once last year, it wouldn't shock us if they messed it up twice.