EIFF 2026: Northern Irish comedy-drama Skintown wins top prize

The 79th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival came to a close last night on a poignant note with the world premiere of Bel, a documentary about the late Scottish-Kenyan musician Beldina Odenyo who performed under the stage name Heir of the Cursed. Directed by Louise Lockwood, the film explores Odenyo’s life, from her childhood in Kenya through to her troubled adolescence in Kirkconnel to her adult life as a prominent musician on Glasgow’s music scene. Odenyo looked to be on the brink of stardom in 2021 after an extraordinary gig at Edinburgh's Usher Hall as part of the annual SAY Award ceremony. But two weeks after this celebrated performance, Odenyo took her own life. 

Much of Lockwood's film is focused around a cache of music Odenyo left behind, titled “passable demos”, and her sister Leah’s effort to have these songs professionally recorded and released as a posthumous album. The film also includes moving interviews with Odenyo’s friends and colleagues, including singer-songwriter Kathryn Joseph, Odenyo's ex-boyfriend and collaborator Lewis Semple, and the poet and playwright Jackie Kay. While Lockwood's film is very much a celebration of Odenyo’s artistry, it leaves you with an overwhelming sense of sadness that the world has been robbed of an extraordinary talent and lifeforce. 

Before the screening of Bel, Edinburgh International Film Festival’s two major prizes – The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence and The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence – were handed out. It was a rather awkward ceremony that was heavily delayed and lacked a bit of the celebration one would expect for the culmination of the week-long festival; something to work on for next year’s 80th edition. 

There can be no complaints about the winner of the top prize, though. It went to Kieron J Walsh for Skintown, his lively tale of friendship which takes place in Enniskillen in 1994, when the Troubles still raged but Northern Ireland looked on the brink of change. The film is threaded with dark humour, features charismatic performances and takes its familiar coming-of-age story to some deeply moving places. It went down a storm with audiences, and it’s no surprise that they voted it the best film in the competition, winning Walsh a handsome bronze bust of Sean Connery and an even more attractive £50,000 prize fund.

The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence was handed out by Connery’s son Jason, who was full of enthusiasm for the festival. “I always say that things of quality take a bit of time to bubble to the surface, and I think this year the festival feels like it’s really getting its legs,” he said. Connery wasn’t just in town with his family’s chequebook, either. He explained that he watched all ten films in the competition with the whole Connery clan, and they seemed to have enjoyed themselves thoroughly. “We all talked about the films afterwards, and we had lots of things to say,” says Connery. “The films were really wonderful in so many different ways.” This seems a fair assessment by Connery. This was the third instalment of The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, and from the films I saw, it seems like the strongest lineup yet. Along with Skintown, I can see several other titles going on to have successful festival and theatrical runs beyond Edinburgh.

Thelma Schoonmaker wasn’t in town to hand out the festival’s short film prize, as she had been for the previous two editions. “She’s editing Martin Scorsese’s new film”, the horror What Happens at Night with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Mads Mikkelsen, EIFF Director Paul Ridd informed us. As excuses go, it’s a good one. The prize was instead handed out by EIFF Chair Andrew Macdonald. It went to Sindha Agha’s Grief Room, which follows two estranged sisters who reunite at their mother’s deathbed. The Pakistani-American filmmaker, who’s based between LA and London, takes home a not-too-shabby £15,000 prize fund. 

“The standard of films and filmmakers competing this year at EIFF has been exceedingly high,” said Ridd. “We are so proud of being able to launch this terrific work into the world, and we wish all our filmmakers the very best as they continue their journeys with their films and with their careers. 

“It has been a pleasure to spend some time with these talented people this past week. Grief Room is a contained gem of wit, warmth and sadness, and Skintown is a beautiful, funny and very moving film. We are delighted to see that audiences have responded so enthusiastically to both films. Cinema is alive and well in the hands of these immense talents.” 

---

Bel is released in UK cinemas from 4 Sep; read our review of Skintown
Edinburgh International Film Festival will return in 2027