Toni Collette’s Directorial Debut ‘The Best Of’ Among 75 Projects Backed by Screen Australia — SkimNews
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- Screen Australia is distributing AUD 16.9 million ($11.7M) across 75 production, development and short film projects, with Screen NSW, Screen Queensland, Screenwest and VicScreen co-financing major productions
- Toni Collette will make her feature directing debut with 'The Best Of,' adapting Graeme Simsion's bestselling novel about two ex-lovers reuniting decades later, with Collette and Christopher Simon producing and Kismet distributing locally
- Brouhaha Entertainment is producing series 'The Dark Lake' based on Sarah Bailey's novel, with Tonkin starring as a rural detective investigating her former classmate's killing and Becca Johnstone writing the screenplay
- Jeffrey Walker is directing 'Bull,' a feature about a smooth-talking prisoner joining a debating team in Tasmania's harshest jail, with George Pullar starring, co-writing with Taylor Danworth, and a cast including Richard Roxburgh, Teresa Palmer and Harrison Gilbertson
- Sooshi Mango is making their feature debut about three Italian immigrants defending their social club from a mysterious wellness club, with Nick Kozakis directing from a script by the group's members and Declan Fay
- Rodd Rathjen is directing 'No Friend But the Mountains,' co-writing the screenplay with Behrouz Boochani about a Kurdish journalist documenting conditions on Manus Island, with the New Zealand Film Commission co-financing
- Development funding also went to Mithila Gupta's 'Desi Down Under' romantic comedy and Goalpost Pictures' thriller 'The Caretaker,' while shorts include Rosie Westhoff's bushfire-themed 'Solastalgia' and a Pasifika demon-hunter animation both mentored by Kitty Green
Why it matters: Screen Australia's AUD 16.9M round funds literary adaptations (Boochani's Manus Island memoir, Simsion's, Bailey's), a Tasmanian prison drama, Italian-immigrant comedy, and Pasifika supernatural shorts — backing Australian stories across formats from features to shorts while Screen Currency 2026 data shows local content resonates with audiences.
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