On a remote Scottish island, two siblings have spent their entire lives keeping outsiders at bay, and now the government has sent someone straight to their shore to end that way of life for good.

THE INCOMER, the feature debut from Scottish writer-director Louis Paxton, follows Isla and Sandy as an awkward council worker arrives with orders to remove them from their home, setting off a confrontation that gradually turns into something far stranger and more humane than anyone expects. As the three characters circle each other, their fears, loneliness, and the myths that bind them to the island slowly come into focus, transforming what begins as a standoff into a study of connection. THE INCOMER premiered in the NEXT section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it took home the NEXT Innovator Award, with the jury singling out its distinctive blend of deadpan humor, animation, and myth.

The film represents Paxton’s first feature after a career built on shorts spanning comedy, drama, horror, and even musicals, alongside his work as a director on the BBC One crime drama SHETLAND. That range shows in THE INCOMER‘s tonal ambition, which asks its cast to hold humor and myth in the same frame without losing the emotional throughline.

Domhnall Gleeson leads as Daniel, the uneasy government official tasked with reclaiming the island, while Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke play Isla and Sandy, the siblings fighting to preserve their peculiar, isolated existence. Emun Elliott, Michelle Gomez, and John Hannah complete the ensemble, with Hannah taking on the memorable role of a mythological sea creature woven into Isla’s story, adding a folkloric texture that seems to be exactly what caught the Sundance jury’s attention.