“The Incomer,” Louis Paxton’s debut feature starring Domhnall Gleeson, has been picked up by Focus Features for international rights and is now also set to open this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival.
The Scottish folk-comedy-drama, focussing on the clash between a pair of isolated siblings and a government worker on a remote, windswept island, premiered in Sundance, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award. Alongside Gleeson, Gayle Rankin (“House of The Dragon,” “Glow”) and Grant O’Rourke (“Outlander”) star with an ensemble cast including John Hannah (“Sliding Doors,” “The Last of Us”) Michelle Gomez (“Green Wing,” “Doom Patrol”) and Emun Elliott (“The Gold,” “Sexy Beast”).
The film will be released by Universal Pictures International in the U.K. and Ireland later this year.
“Opening the Edinburgh International Film Festival with my debut feature is a dream come true,” said Paxton. “Screening in my beloved hometown, and the festival where I started as a teenage usher, sharing this story with a Scottish audience, is nothing short of mind-blowing. I couldn’t ask for a more meaningful premiere.”
Added EIFF CEO and festival director, Paul Ridd: “With wit, grace and intelligence, this striking, unpredictable and beautifully acted Scottish debut dazzled, moved and amused us immensely when we first saw it back in January. We are thrilled to open this year’s edition with a film which embodies such a stirring and inspiring spirit of creativity, empathy and invention in filmmaking. This is precisely the kind of film that EIFF is all about.”
The 2026 Edinburgh Film Festival will runs from 13 – 19 August.
English (US) ·