Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has announced that Edinburgh-born filmmaker Louis Paxton’s debut film, The Incomer will open its 79th edition starring Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke with ensemble cast including John Hannah, Michelle Gomez and Emun Elliott.
The Incomer is set on a remote Scottish island and follows siblings Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O’Rourke) who have lived in peaceful isolation for decades, hunting seabirds, chatting to mythic creatures and defending their isle from dreaded Incomers. Their world is upended with the arrival of Daniel (Domhnall Gleeson), an awkward council worker, tasked with uprooting them to the mainland.
The film that won the NEXT Innovator Award at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival is written and directed by bold new filmmaking talent Louis Paxton, who said “Opening the Edinburgh International Film Festival with my debut feature is a dream come true. 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.”
Produced by Bafta winner Shirley O’Connor and Emily Gotto and co-produced by Wendy Griffin, The Incomer has been praised by critics and audiences for its wit, heart and independent spirit. The film is supported by the BFI, Screen Scotland with additional support from musician Moby and Lindsay Hicks’ U.S. production company Little Walnut, Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions, UK’s Head Gear Films and Ireland’s Inevitable Pictures.
EIFF CEO and Festival Director, Paul Ridd said: “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.”
EIFF 2026 is supported by Screen Scotland whose Executive Director Isabel Davis said “Louis is bringing it home following The Incomer’s triumph at Sundance earlier this year. It marks an extraordinarily assured debut feature. This singular story of a remote community on Scotland’s Far North coast feels truly distinctive, something that could only have come from here.”
EIFF will run from 13th – 19th August 2026 with more information being released on venues and key strategic partners in the coming months. The Incomer will be released by Universal Pictures International in the UK and Ireland later this year.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 