Edinburgh’s Sean Connery Prize Lineup: 10 Daring New Features

From haunted neuroscientists to ghostly patriarchs and doomed mining towns, the 10 world premieres up for this year’s £50,000 ($67,000) Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence deliver no shortage of striking worlds. 

Presented as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival’s 78th edition, the titles competing for the audience-voted award are fiercely original – many of them debut features – and point to a generation of filmmakers pushing into new terrain emotionally, politically and aesthetically.

“Our approach is always about thinking about what our audiences are looking for,” Paul Ridd told Variety, “and how expansive we can be in terms of the diversity of the program as a whole.”

That boldness shows in “Mortician,” a deadpan yet deeply charged Iranian exile story shot entirely on a phone, and “Novak,” a psychological sci-fi from Greece that evokes both the celebration of a guru and fringe YouTube rabbit holes. “Best Boy,” from Canada’s Jesse Noah Klein, leans into surreal black comedy as three adult siblings battle through “trials” set by their dead father.

Helen Walsh’s sensual queer romance “On the Sea” finds revelation amid the quiet of a tight-knit Welsh community, while Campbell X’s “Low Rider” sends its characters skidding through the roads and raves of South Africa in search of connection and identity.

Further tonal and formal variety abounds. Shot on 16mm, “Concessions” is a wistful elegy for the cinematic experience. “Blue Cam” dives into the unfiltered world of queer intimacy. “In Transit,” a chamber piece starring Jennifer Ehle, simmers with unspoken tensions. “Once You Shall Be One of Those Who Lived Long Ago” documents the slow death of a town sinking into the earth. And “Two Neighbours,” an urban fable of envy and greed, refracts classic mythology through satire and supernatural edge.

If there’s a shared theme, it’s a fascination with rupture – moments when routine breaks, identities shift, and families fracture or reform.

Below, the list of competition features:

“Best Boy” (Jesse Noah Klein, Canada)

The promise of a $100,000 inheritance rekindles a set of challenges to find the Best Boy among two brothers and a sister in this debut from Canadian Jesse Noah Klein. Their father, having passed, still has a strong patriarchal hold over the family psyche. Their mother referees these grown adults through four trials to find who is the “Best Boy.” A black comedy starring Aaron Abrams, Caroline Dhavernas, Dylan Smith, Lise Roy and Marc Bendavid, with early Lanthimos tones, raises many questions of how we are shaped and formed in childhood and just how hard it is to remould anew.

“Novak” (Harry Lagoussis, Greece)

In “Novak,” a sci-fi drama from Greece’s Heretic, Harry Lagoussis crafts a slow-burn psychological fable where fringe science meets fractured reality. Zlatko Burić (“Triangle of Sadness”) plays a haunted neuroscientist lured into an Athens commune convinced his discarded research can shield them from electromagnetic chaos. “You seem to think there’s a solution to every problem. Some things just are the way they are,” says one character to Burić. Guru, madman, genius, lonely—perhaps all of them. As ideology mutates into mania, Novak becomes a prophet or pawn. Produced with Cloud Fog Haze (Switzerland) and Stone Bench Films (India). Ella Rumpf and Elena Topalidou co-star.

“In Transit” (Jaclyn Bethany, United States)

Set in coastal Maine, it follows a solitary painter (Jennifer Ehle) who invites a young bartender (Alex Sarrigeorgiou) to pose for her, sparking an enigmatic relationship that alters both women. Directed by Emmy nominee Jaclyn Bethany and written by Sarrigeorgiou. François Arnaud co-stars. Bethany produces via BKE Productions alongside Valmora and Little Language Films.

“Mortician” (Abdolreza Kahani, Canada)

A dead body is prepared, washed. A Quran recitation is heard in the background. We are given a window into a bleak reality for an expat and exiled Iranian community in Quebec. Shot entirely on a mobile phone, A buzz title at Edinburgh, ”Mortician” is a gripping one-person indie from exiled Iranian director Abdolreza Kahani. Set in Canada, the dark comedy follows a mortician drawn into the world of a protest singer in hiding. Inspired by real events, it confronts the Islamic Republic’s surveillance of dissidents abroad. Acquired for world sales by Visit Films, Produced by Montreal-based Niva Art, the film stars Nima Sadr and Iranian singer Gola.

“Once You Shall Be One of Those Who Lived Long Ago” (Alexander Rynéus & Per Bifrost, Sweden)

Two men are in a hallway of an abandoned apartment block; one dances as the other plays a polka on an accordion. This is one unique scene among many in the only documentary in competition. It captures the fading away of a northern Swedish town that is sinking due to iron mining. The irony of the company’s fence sign, “Mine and community side by side,” captures the humorous melancholy perfectly.

“On the Sea” (Helen Walsh, United Kingdom)

Set against the windswept coast of North Wales, Helen Walsh’s “On the Sea” is a candid and sensual story. When a married mussel farmer’s routine is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, repressed realities of self rise to the surface. Backed by Red Union Films and played delicately by Barry Ward (“They May Face the Rising Sun”) and Lorne MacFadyen (“Vigil”).

“Low Rider” (Campbell X, South Africa, United Kingdom)

Director Campbell X (“Stud Life”) returns with “Low Rider,” a subversive road movie set in South Africa, picked up by Alief for world sales. Starring Emma McDonald (“Moonhaven”) and Thishiwe Ziqubu (“Hard to Get”), the film follows a young British woman searching for her estranged father through Cape Town’s nightlife and the Western Cape’s backroads. “Just because something is familiar doesn’t mean that it’s the same. Same people, different worlds,” warns her guide played by Ziqubu. Backed by the BFI and produced by Boudica Entertainment.

“Blue Cam” (Elliot Tuttle, United States)

In Elliot Tuttle’s bold debut, queer camboy Aaron Eagle (Kieron Moore) agrees to spend the night with a mysterious client (Reed Birney), only to uncover a disturbing link to his past. Unfolding over one charged night, the film is a described as a gripping and unsettling two-hander. The film explores shame, memory and power. Produced by Fusion Entertainment.

“Concessions” (Mas Bouzidi, United States)

A love letter to cinema, this story tracks the last day of a movie theatre, the Royal Alamo. We see the winding of 35mm into the projector, philosophical chats between the staff, and the late Michael Madsen in one of his final roles walking off into the sunset with leather jacket, cigarette and cowboy hat to boot. Shot in 16mm, it glows with nostalgia for the theatrical. Produced by Sentenza Film Company, Terra Productions, Kebrado and Travis Pictures.

“Two Neighbours” (Ondine Viñao, United Kingdom, United States)

A darkly comic reimagining of the Aesop fable “Avaricious and Envious,” “Two Neighbours” follows a resentful writer (“The Witcher”‘s Anya Chalotra) and a reckless socialite (Chloe Cherry, “Euphoria”) whose night of excess turns uncanny with the arrival of a wish-granting stranger. Directed by Ondine Viñao, whose background is in video art, and produced by Silkscreen and Portal Pictures, this visually rich satire features Ralph Ineson, Taz Skylar and Samuel Anderson. A morality tale for the self-optimisation era.