Kieron J. Walsh’s SKINTOWN has taken home the £50,000 Sean Connery Prize for feature filmmaking excellence at the 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival, beating out nine other feature-length world premieres in a field the festival’s own leadership called exceptionally strong. Voted on by audiences across the festival’s run, the prize crowns a story rooted firmly in Northern Irish soil: two best friends scheming to break free of small-town life against the backdrop of the 1994 ceasefire. Jack Rowan and Chris Walley lead the film, adapted from Ciaran McMenamin’s novel by McMenamin himself, who also penned the screenplay. Visit Films is handling international sales, so expect this one to travel.

The short film prize told its own story of raw emotional stakes. Sindha Agha’s GRIEF ROOM won the £15,000 Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for short filmmaking excellence, a tightly wound drama about two estranged sisters forced back into each other’s orbit at their mother’s deathbed.

Both awards were handed out at a ceremony at Edinburgh’s Cameo Cinema, presented by Jason Connery on behalf of The Connery Foundation, capping off a festival that ran August 13 to 19. EIFF CEO and festival director Paul Ridd reflected on the strength of this year’s lineup, saying the standard of films and filmmakers competing had been exceedingly high, and that the festival was proud to launch such terrific work into the world. He wished the filmmakers well as they carry their films, and their careers, forward, calling it a pleasure to have spent the past week among such talented people.