As 2025 comes to an end and we turn a new leaf, you may ask yourself -- "Where did the year go?", "Why was Galaxy Studios so quiet this year?", or, "Where's the Space Lamp 2 they promised?" -- Don't worry. We've asked many of those ourselves. Here we will try to explain everything, and entice you to what's possibly to come.

2024 seemed to be our most eventful and exciting year yet. With plenty of new releases, many projects entering production and new announcements, several events and important business chapters unfolding, it really felt like 2025 would be full of new releases and prosperity. But those who have been following us closely this year will know that this was not exactly the case. So what happened?

To understand fully, we must take a look at our year as a whole.

At the start of 2025, Galaxy Studios was still riding the high horse 2024 had left off with. Films were getting better, festivals were abundant, and so many projects were unfolding rapidly. The first Stardom Awards were underway, celebrating our work in the previous 2 years, and Ashtan Hase announced a new "Secret Project" that had finished writing. Although at this point the studio had started to feel slightly dry already, so much was still happening in the background.

The Stray 2 table read was a success, a new Solar project "Atlas" by Harry Gibson breathed new life into our productivity, and the Stardom Awards saw the announcement of "The Cameraman", Hasefilme's newest meta adventure, and a scene featuring the stars was previewed to the public that night. Around that time, the "Autocomplete Interviews" appeared, which saw the three heads of the studio in a more personal light and we got to know them better.

We even set up a new way of rolling in some revenue, with a partner ship at Grace Acting Studios, in which we set up a donation bin for drink containers to recycle for money and fund our films.

Max Bourke made a big wave in our community upon announcing his first film, "Teen", in the works, which was also set to be the first feature film in our catalogue as a whole. Then, in April, Max made his directorial debut with the arty short film "Last Day on Earth", which was seen by unanimously positive reviews; a successful collaboration between himself and Kolbi Benson and Solar Films follow-up to "Delirium" of 2024.

"Guy and Guys 4: Undead" was the last significant release of Galaxy Studios in 2025, which released both on Mother's Day and Ashtan Hase's birthday in May 2025. The film was received very positively, and at almost 30 minutes in runtime, it was Galaxy Studio's most ambitious and meta project to date, doing significantly better than the other films in its franchise and surpassing many expectations. 2025 was off to an amazing start.

But with all of this progress being made, how come the year suddenly grinded to a halt?

As Co-Founder Chase A. Coustley puts it, "I think, at least in my case, all these releases felt like weights coming off of our chests. Somehow unanimously, we all basically started new chapters in our lives after that point, which pretty much meant a break from Galaxy Studios for a while, even if it wasn't deliberate."

Adding to this, he stated, "I definitely felt pressure on myself to get everything I had promised out. Stray 2, Kizlatio, Cameraman, Space Lamp 2, but at that point I also had other and, as I could tell, better ideas in my head, which made me both want to work on past projects but move on at the same time. It's a paradox, and I felt frozen. Just like Limits [of Motivation].

"After Undead, most of us ventured into new things. New projects, new parts of our lives, and new growth. We knew we were making progress, but we couldn't measure it like we used to, since there was radio silence on Galaxy Studios."

Since a number of people in the community were naturally (and however briefly) gravitating away from Galaxy Studios and filmmaking as a whole, Galaxy Studios felt incredibly dry. Kolbi Benson, Ella Hase and Chase A. Coustley all started focusing on music and their bands "Awesome Sauce", "The Seasons", and "Shut Eye", respectively, the latter two also diverting focus to performing arts with productions of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Snow Queen".

Coustley, Benson and Bourke also started a comedy YouTube channel called "The Spider", named after a quote by Ashtan Hase, and both Ash and Max stayed relatively quiet, focusing on studies, travel, and writing.

Zac Deren made his way to the Sf3Fest finals with "They Call Me Bart", a film starring Deren and featuring appearances from numerous community members, going to the Sydney Opera House for the finals.

But one thing that really showed our productivity coming back in 2024 was film festivals. There were 3 significant film festivals we took part in during 2024 that re-sparked our productivity -- the 15-Word Film Festival, Battle of the Films, and the 48-Hour Film Frenzy -- all 3 of which were seemingly annual. So what was our luck last year?

Firstly, although we registered, the 15-Word Film Festival eventually did not happen, resulting in one less film than predicted. This was extremely disappointing, as both Chase A. Coustley and Max Bourke planned on making separate short films for the event.

Secondly, the 48-Hour Film Frenzy also did not happen. Although, unlike the 15-Word festival, the 48-Hour Film Frenzy was not cancelled, but it was merely postponed to late March 2026, as well as another Geelong Waterfront Film festival scheduled in the same month, which looks promising as well.

Now unlike the other two, Battle of the Films did happen, and four separate films were made for it. So what happened?

Well, firstly, as Ashtan Hase had left Grace the year prior, he had no involvement in BOTF this year. However, the rest of his group from Light Amidst the Shadows, as well as our very own Max Bourke and Owen Wright, did make a film, which was a mockumentary-style film called "BOTF: The Film", which was about them making a follow-up the Light Amidst the Shadows, that succeeded immensely, winning the "Best Comedy" award, which was well deserved.

Zac Deren's film received similar acclaim, with a majority positive response to his film, and winning the "Best Ensemble" award. But at BOTF, all eyes were on Kolbi Benson and Chase A. Coustley. The two Galaxy Studios leaders at Grace that had made some of the best films the year prior. How were they going to follow up their previous works?

Chase A. Coustley decided to take a backseat in the writing of his film "Between Us", letting the newcomers in his group have creative control, opting for a directing and editing role. The film had a somewhat basic premise and much went wrong during filming, like both Coustley and the star Oli getting sick during the week they were supposed to be filming, not having a script until 2 weeks later than promised, and a rushed ending that didn't exactly sit right with anyone involved with the film. But despite the problems, it came out better than expected. That is, until the many technical difficulties in editing and exporting regarding colour and sound, which led the film to fall flat at the premiere.

Kolbi Benson took a similar approach with his film "The Trial", letting newcomer Lucius Lamb have creative lead in the film, giving him both the primary writer and star role. However, similar to Coustley's predicament, when time to film came around, Lamb was nowhere to be found -- as he was at an Oasis concert -- and neither was the script. It just so happened that Max Bourke appeared on the filming day, so they decided to let him be the star, and similar to his work in "Newton's Third Law", the film was pretty much entirely improvised.  Though there was no technical difficulties, Kolbi also had trouble handing his finished project in on time, and he himself has stated that he was quite disappointed with how the film turned out. This situation hilariously led to Max Bourke running against himself for "Best Comedy".

Due to lacklustre films and unfinished products, these projects have still not been displayed on our site just yet.

This was the last major public event for Galaxy Studios in 2025.

Now here's a formal apology from us at Galaxy Studios; we're sorry for leaving a dry spell over 2025, and we're sorry for all of the unfulfilled promises and projects that have been scrapped, like Kizlatio, Space Lamp 2, and The Cameraman. We'll try to make 2026 a whole lot more productive.

And, we'll be honest, not all of our passions have completely realigned with filmmaking, but don't fret. We are determined to make 2026 a year for the books. If you look back on our years as a studio, a kind of dry spell is common with every second year. I mean, just look at the productivity from 2022, which was prosperous and abundant, to 2023, which was semi-lacklustre and dry, then 2024, which was full of productivity and events.

Now let's take a look at the year ahead. What may 2026 have in store for Galaxy Studios?

Well firstly, let's not forget that Max Bourke has been working tirelessly all year writing, casting, location scouting, and filming Teen. He's seriously been putting in a lot of elbow grease to get Teen up and running when it comes to rewrites and cast. We are now happy to say that there is a script and cast list ready to go, and filming has already begun.

While Kizlatio has pretty much been cancelled at this point, the months of footage will hopefully not go to waste, and Chase A. Coustley has been working hard to make a documentary of sorts of the making, filming and falling apart of what could have been the most interesting project in Galaxy Studios history.

We are working hard to acquire Toilet Paper Productions fully and bring some of the best short films of Zac Deren's to the site and, although nothing is official just yet, be sure to keep an eye out.

Deren's also going to Sydney on the 24th of January for the Sf3 Fest finals, so wish him and "They Call Me Bart" luck!

While not film related, Kolbi Benson has been working seriously hard to write, perform and produce a full album almost entirely by himself, which is set to release early this year. Kolbi is very is a talented musician and songwriter and we think that people will be blown away by the end result.

And both Ashtan Hase and Chase A. Coustley are working on undisclosed film projects that are set to be at the standard of (or beyond) their previous films.

And let's not forget the two Geelong Waterfront Film festivals in March 2026, BOTF 2026, (hopefully) the 15-Word Film Festival, and this year's BOTF products, that are set to come to the website gradually and soon.

And if you yourself are working on something, or have made a film or two, and want somewhere to display it or someone to promote it, reach out to us and Solar Films would be happy to share your talents with the world; free of charge, no strings attached. This would both help people with passions but not a place to share them, but also us having a productive year.

So thank you for staying with us through our rough patch that was a majority of 2025, and here's to a prosperous 2026!