Screen Australia unveils $16.9m in development and production funding

Toni Collette’s feature directorial debut The Best Of and the first feature from comedy group Sooshi Mango are among 75 narrative projects to share in $16.9 million in funding from Screen Australia.

The agency’s latest funding round spans features, series and short film across both production and development.

Recipients of production funding include Brouhaha Entertainment’s long anticipated series The Dark Lake, starring Phoebe Tonkin; a feature film based on Iranian Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani’s memoir, written during his seven years of incarceration as refugee on Manus Island, to be directed by Rodd Rathjen; and Jeffery Walker’s Bull, starring George Pullar, Richard Roxburgh, Robyn Malcolm, Teresa Palmer, Thomas M Wright and Harrison Gilbertson, about a debating team in one of Tasmania’s toughest prisons.

Screen Australia director of narrative content Louise Gough said the latest round of funding supported both emerging creatives and established voices exploring new creative territory.

“Australian storytellers continue to captivate audiences with their creativity, originality and distinctive perspectives,” she said.

“Screen Currency 2026 found that local stories matter deeply to Australians, and these projects will deliver on the authenticity and ambition that audiences have come to expect.