Toni Collette to Direct The Best Of as Screen Australia Confirms Film Funding

Toni Collette’s first feature as a director has new production backing. Screen Australia’s October 13 announcement names The Best Of, an adaptation of Graeme Simsion’s The Best of Adam Sharp, among the projects receiving its latest round of narrative-content funding. Collette is also producing the film with Christopher Simon.

The development is the funding commitment, rather than Collette’s first association with the material. Her company optioned the novel in 2017, and Simsion’s own adaptation-status page already identified her as its planned director. The new announcement gives the project a clearer financing, distribution and sales framework, while leaving its cast and release date unannounced.

What Screen Australia has confirmed

The agency’s original announcement describes The Best Of as Collette’s feature directorial debut. It lists major production investment from Screen Australia, in association with Screen NSW, and names Collette and Christopher Simon as producers.

The headline funding figure needs context: more than A$16.9 million covers 75 projects across production and development, including films, series and shorts. It is not an announced budget or individual grant of that size for The Best Of. The release does not give this film’s specific investment amount or establish that its entire financing is complete.

Kismet handles local Australian distribution; Cornerstone handles international sales. Those are distinct roles. A sales company represents a project to potential buyers, so Cornerstone’s involvement does not by itself announce a theatrical distributor, streaming service or opening date in every territory. Variety ANZ’s report corroborates that setup.

The film and the novel have different announced titles

Screen Australia calls the film The Best Of. Its source is The Best of Adam Sharp, the Graeme Simsion novel identified on the author’s film and television page.

Penguin’s synopsis follows Adam as he approaches fifty. His life with his partner Claire is settled, but he remains preoccupied with Angelina Brown, an actress with whom he had an affair more than twenty years earlier. When Angelina contacts him again, the possibility of a second chance unsettles the life he has built.

The agency’s description likewise centers on former lovers reconnecting after decades apart. That establishes the adaptation’s broad premise. It does not confirm which performers will play Adam, Claire or Angelina, or how closely the screenplay will follow the novel.

A project with a longer development history

In May 2017, Deadline reported that Collette had optioned the novel and screenplay for her then-new company Vocab Films. That report also attached her to the role of Angelina. It is historical development reporting, rather than confirmation of the current film’s cast.

Simsion’s undated adaptation-status page lists Vocab Films and UK-based New Sparta Productions and says Collette is slated to direct. The October 2026 funding announcement therefore advances an existing adaptation rather than introducing a newly discovered book project. Its current producer credits are Collette and Simon; older company and acting attachments should not be treated as an exhaustive present-day production list.

Is there a release date or trailer?

Neither is announced in the current funding material. Screen Australia’s release does not provide filming dates, a full cast, a current screenwriter credit, a completed runtime or territory-by-territory release arrangements. It also does not confirm that Collette will act in the finished film.

For now, the concrete news is her planned feature-directing debut receiving production support, with its Australian distribution and international sales partners identified. A production investment is a meaningful step, but viewers will need a separate announcement for when and where they can see the movie.

Find more film announcements and production reporting in Movies.