Toni Collette's Directing Debut Gets a Slice of AUD16.9 Million

Toni Collette's name appears twice on one line of Screen Australia's latest funding list, as director and as producer, beside a title that will mark her feature directing debut. ^[2][3]

The film is The Best Of, an adaptation of Graeme Simsion's bestselling novel. Screen Australia describes it as the story of two former lovers who reunite after decades apart, with old feelings bringing sorrow, chaos and bliss. Christopher Simon produces alongside Collette. Kismet is the local distributor and Cornerstone handles international sales. ^[1][2][3]

Screen Australia calls its stake a major production investment, made in association with Screen NSW. ^[2]

The announcement came on October 13, 2026, and covers 75 narrative projects across features, series and shorts, which share more than AUD16.9 million in production and development money. ^[1][2] It does not say how much of that went to The Best Of, when the film will shoot or release, or why Collette was chosen. It carries no word from Collette on why she wants to direct. ^[2][3] Anything about her intentions would be guesswork, so I will not offer any.

What the list does allow is a look at what the money is for, and who it is being handed to.

A second actor in the same year

Collette is not the only performer on a Screen Australia list this year. In a separate round announced on April 1, 2026, the agency backed actor Cody Fern's feature directing debut, an Australian-Canadian co-production that received major production investment from Screen Australia and Telefilm Canada. ^[6]

Two examples in six months do not make a trend, and Screen Australia has announced no policy of favouring actors who want to direct. I cannot tell you how many performers have received public money to direct in recent years, because the dossier does not count them. But two in one calendar year is enough to ask the question.

Why would a funder say yes to an actor with no feature behind the camera? Here is my reading, offered as opinion and not as anything Screen Australia has said.

A familiar face is a kind of signpost. It tells an audience, a distributor and a festival programmer that this film exists and is worth a look. That matters more than it used to, for reasons the agency's own research makes plain.

The problem of being found

Screen Currency 2026, the research Screen Australia publishes on how Australians watch, finds a country that says it cares. Some 84 percent of those surveyed consider access to local screen content important, and 75 percent are interested in watching more. ^[4][5]

The viewing habits tell a different story. Some 60 percent spend less than 30 percent of their viewing time on local content, and only 36 percent say local content is easy to find. ^[4][5]

That gap between wanting and finding is the real business problem of Australian film. A funder who reads those numbers will look for projects that arrive with some visibility attached, whether a bestselling novel, a known name or both. The Best Of has both.

Louise Gough, Screen Australia's Director of Narrative Content, said the round supports emerging creatives and established voices exploring new territory, and cited Screen Currency in saying local stories matter deeply to Australians. ^[1][2]

Survey enthusiasm is not proof that any particular film will find its audience. But it does explain why an agency would want a debut director who comes with a public already attached.

What an actor might bring

Now the creative question, which is the one I find more interesting. I stress that this is analysis of what actors can offer in general, and no claim about Collette's skills.

An actor who has spent years on other people's sets has watched directors work from the one position that sees every mistake up close. She has been the person waiting in a cold trailer while the lighting is fixed, and the person asked to cry on the fourth take. She knows what a performer needs to hear and what only gets in the way.

A career director who came up through cinematography or editing may know more about the machinery of a shot. The actor-director tends to know more about the people standing in it.

The subject matter suits that kind of attention. A story about two people meeting again after decades is a story about what memory keeps and what it quietly drops.

It lives in faces and silences, in the small pause before someone says a name. That is performance territory, and a director who trusts her cast has a good chance of getting it right.

It is also a risk. A first feature asks for a hundred decisions a day that have nothing to do with acting, about schedules, budgets and cuts. Collette is producing as well as directing, which spreads the load across a producing partnership with Simon. Whether it is enough is something only the film can answer.

A slate with more than prestige in it

It would be easy to read the round as a prestige list, with a famous actor leading the bill. The slate is wider than that. It includes The Dark Lake, a series adaptation of Sarah Bailey's novel, and Bull, a feature inspired by a true story about a prison debating team. ^[1][2][3]

There is No Friend But The Mountains, based on Behrouz Boochani's memoir. There is a feature debut from Sooshi Mango, and a development project called Desi Down Under. The agency's own list of what it is backing runs from shorts to series to features still on paper. ^[1][2][3]

I notice that four of the projects named in the coverage draw on a published book or a real event. That is a sensible way to spend public money, since a story that has already found readers is a safer thing to film than one that has not.

It also means the round leans on material other people have already tested. Original work, the kind with no novel behind it, is harder to spot on this list.

There is a second institutional thread. Screen Australia has used a Gender Matters target to track who holds key creative roles. The current aim is for at least half of those roles, across funded development and production projects, to be held by women and/or non-binary and/or gender-diverse people, averaged across 2023/24 to 2025/26. ^[7]

The announcement does not link that target to Collette's selection, and nothing in the dossier shows it played a part. It is background, and the reader should treat it that way.

Is it the right bet?

The industry the agency supports is not small. Screen Currency puts the gross value added by Australia's screen and games sectors at AUD11.1 billion in 2023/24, with AUD1.6 billion in exports that year, and counts 68,844 people employed in 2024/25. ^[4][5] Public money here sits on top of real jobs.

So my view is this. The right question is not whether prestige beats commerce. A well-chosen first feature by a known performer, adapted from a novel people have read, is a reasonable bet on both.

Where I would push back is on the lack of detail. Seventy-five projects and AUD16.9 million is a lot of public money to announce without a per-project figure, a stated set of criteria or any expected audience. ^[2][3] Readers can admire Collette's move and still ask how the agency decided it was worth backing.

The agency's own research says Australians want local stories and cannot easily find them. The way to close that gap is to show people what was funded, why, and how much, so they can judge the bets themselves.

The next details should come soon. Screen Australia has said further recently funded projects will be revealed alongside the ABC Media Showcase on October 21. ^[2] What the public still lacks for The Best Of is the amount, the shooting schedule and a release date.