Netflix’s Allen celebrates its Queensland roots at Brisbane premiere – The cast and creative team behind the new Australian family film Allen have gathered in Brisbane ahead of its global Netflix premiere on Thursday, 12 November 2026.
The special screening at Angelika Cinemas brought the production back to the state where it was made. Filming took place across Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, placing recognisable Queensland scenery at the centre of a story built around childhood friendship, memory and adventure.
For Australian viewers, Allen also represents a notable step for Brisbane-based Ludo Studio. The company behind the global phenomenon Bluey and the acclaimed series Thou Shalt Not Steal is moving into live-action feature filmmaking for the first time.
What is Allen about?
The film follows Petey, played by T.J. Power, who befriends a small alien named Allen when he is a child. Twenty years later, Allen unexpectedly returns and the pair are drawn into a new adventure.
Netflix describes the film as a warm, hope-filled story steeped in Australian nostalgia. Its coastal Queensland setting is closely tied to co-director and co-writer Daley Pearson’s childhood in Coolum, giving the production a personal connection to the locations seen on screen.
That local grounding gives the story more than a picturesque backdrop. The film’s central idea — reconnecting with a friendship that shaped childhood — is reflected in a production that returns Pearson to the places that helped shape his own early years.
Cast and creative team
Allen stars T.J. Power alongside Charlotte Nicdao, Josh Helman, Emily Barclay and Benedict Hardie. The Brisbane screening also brought together directors Daley Pearson and Jeffrey Walker with members of the cast and production team.
Pearson and Walker co-directed the film, with Pearson and Sophie Miller writing the screenplay. Charlie Aspinwall and Pearson serve as executive producers for Ludo Studio, alongside Miller. Sam Moor and Ross Allsop produced the film, with Lauren Brown as co-producer.
The creative team combines Ludo Studio’s established ability to tell distinctly Australian stories with Walker’s extensive directing career across Australian and international television and film.
Ludo Studio’s first live-action feature
The move into live-action cinema broadens Ludo Studio’s slate while retaining the company’s focus on character-led Australian storytelling. Unlike a conventional science-fiction spectacle, the premise puts the emotional relationship between Petey and Allen at the centre of the film.
The Queensland shoot also reinforces the growing role of the state’s screen industry in attracting and developing Australian productions. By using Brisbane and the coastal regions as the film’s home rather than disguising them as somewhere else, Allen is positioned as an Australian story for a worldwide Netflix audience.
Allen streams globally on Netflix from Thursday, 12 November 2026.
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