Louis Paxton’s debut film, the Domhnall Gleeson-starring The Incomer, will open this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.
From Focus Features and Universal Pictures International, the British comedy also stars Gayle Rankin (House of the Dragon) and Grant O’Rourke (Outlander), with an ensemble cast including John Hannah, Michelle Gomez, and Emun Elliott.
The Incomer is set on a remote Scottish island and follows siblings Isla (Rankin) and Sandy (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 (Gleeson), an awkward council worker, tasked with uprooting them to the mainland.
Written and directed by Paxton, The Incomer won the NEXT Innovator Award at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It’ll be released by Universal Pictures International in the U.K. and Ireland later this year, with Focus picking up international rights.
Paxton, who as a teenager worked as an usher at the Scottish festival, said opening the EIFF is a dream come true. “Screening in my beloved hometown… sharing this story with a Scottish audience, is nothing short of mind-blowing,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for a more meaningful premiere.”
EIFF CEO and festival director Paul Ridd added: “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.”
Shirley O’Connor and Emily Gotto are producers, with Wendy Griffin as a co-producer. The film is supported by the BFI (awarding National Lottery funding), Screen Scotland, with additional support from musician Moby and Lindsay Hicks’ U.S. production company Little Walnut, Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions, the U.K.’s Head Gear Films and Ireland’s Inevitable Pictures.
The 79th Edinburgh International Film Festival will run Aug. 13-19.
