Scottish writer-director Louis Paxton’s debut feature film, the dark comedy-drama The Incomer, has star power – in the form of Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars sequel trilogy), Gayle Rankin (House of the Dragon), John Hannah (The Mummy franchise) and others. It also has an oddball, quirky vibe. And it has the backing of Focus Features, Universal Pictures International and Moby.
What else can you ask for!? Well, on Wednesday, the up-and-coming creative was unveiled as being among the names featured on the 2026 U.K. BAFTA Breakthrough list, supported by Netflix.
The Incomer is set on a remote Scottish island and follows siblings 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 moving them to the mainland.
Paxton talked to THR about the star-studded offbeat movie, how Moby got involved, his hopes for the BAFTA Breakthrough experience and what else is next for him.
“I’m thrilled to be part of BAFTA Breakthrough, and I’m really excited to meet the cohort, particularly all the other creatives from all of these different mediums, including games,” the filmmaker tells THR. “It will also be great to have the chance just to sit with people who are more experienced than me and have been working for a while, just ask them about their career and how it works.”
The Incomer is infused with a feel and stories he knows. “My mother’s family is from the Northern Isles of Scotland. They’re from Orkney,” Paxton tells THR. “I grew up in Edinburgh, but my mother moved back there about 10 years ago. We grew up going to these islands, which are unique. They are a very beautiful, quite remote part of Scotland, but have a very specific identity and culture.”
For example? “I went to other islands where people genuinely survived by eating birds,” he shares. “And at some point, these people had to leave, and I was just fascinated by this. What a big decision that would be if that was where your family had lived their entire lives and your heritage was that. Even if it was going to make your life better, how hard would it be to leave that behind?”
Louis Paxton, courtesy of BAFTA/Sane Seven
Was his youth as surreal as some of the scenes in the film? “I would say about me and my sister that there are parts of the sibling relationship that made it into the film,” Paxton explains. “When we were kids, we really knew how to push each other’s buttons and annoy each other, and so things could escalate from zero to 100 really quickly. And we definitely had some terrible fights when we were young.”
The creative credits casting director Kharmel Cochrane with bringing together a dream ensemble. “We wanted to work with as many Scottish actors as we could, and if they weren’t Scottish, that they were very good at doing a Scottish accent,” he recalls. “And thankfully Domhnall does an exceptional Scottish accent.”
His key to attracting all this talent was the script. “I spent a long time working on the script,” Paxton highlights. “And it was really reassuring in this age of IP and big projects and really humbling that a complete nobody, who’d only made short films, could write a script and that actors would want to be part of it just on the strength of the script.”
So, how did Moby’s production company Little Walnut Productions end up backing The Incomer? “They had been funding films and making films that were largely activist films,” Paxton says. “And then they’d widened their remit to include films that embodied the values that they had as people. They read The Incomer and just really liked it.”
Did Daniel being vegan have to do with that? “It’s funny because people have asked if the veganism in the film came after. Did I add that after Moby came on board?” Paxton says with a laugh. “But it wasn’t. It was already a big part of the film, and I think maybe he appreciated that. But Moby and [creative partner] Lindsay [Hicks] liked the film generally. And they were the best partners to work with – just excellent and really supportive.”
Can fans of The Incomer expect more from Paxton ahead? “It’s all about film for me, film and TV,” he tells THR. “I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker. I’ve signed with CAA in the U.S., and I’ve been having really exciting conversations about my next projects. I’m writing and directing two projects which are U.K.-set.”
And he can share this much: “One’s a horror comedy, and the other is more of a straight comedy. But I’m also attached to direct a film called The Waffle House Index, which is a Plan B project,” meaning from Brad Pitt’s production company, in which French company Mediawan owns a majority stake.
“We’ve got Inde Navarrette as the lead, and Apple are the studio we’re making it with, and we’re really excited about that,” Paxton says. “That’ll be shooting next year. I think that’s most likely to be my next project. I didn’t write it; Andrew Nunnelly wrote the script. It was on the Black List and is a terrific script – really original, really different. It feels totally in line with the kind of projects or films that people are really responding to at the moment. I’m so excited to be a part of that.”