'Skintown' Unveils First Clip Ahead of Edinburgh World Premiere
The Hollywood Reporter has debuted an exclusive clip from Skintown, Kieron J. Walsh's coming-of-age film set against the Troubles in Northern Ireland, days before its world premiere in competition at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (The Hollywood Reporter).
The clip shows the film's two leads pulling up to Kelly's, a nightclub in the coastal town of Portrush, with a batch of stolen ecstasy pills to sell. Vinny, played by Jack Rowan, and Jonty, played by Chris Walley, are two friends navigating the fraught summer of 1994 — the year the IRA announced its ceasefire. The tension between a fragile peace process and the chaotic, drug-fuelled night out is the engine of the scene, and likely the film itself.
Skintown adapts Ciarán McMenamin's 2018 novel of the same name. Walsh directs from a screenplay that carries the book's mix of dark comedy and drama into a Northern Irish setting on the cusp of historic change. The cast also includes Jamie-Lee O'Donnell and Hope Ikpoku Jnr. Yvonne Donohoe produced the film for Keeper Pictures (Northern Ireland Screen).
The 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival runs 13–19 August. Skintown earns its first public screening on Sunday, 16 August at 22:20, playing in competition (Edinburgh International Film Festival). For a film without a distributor yet attached in major territories, a festival competition slot is both a credibility marker and a shop window. Visit Films, the sales agent handling international rights, lists the title as an Ireland/UK production in English, categorised as a drama and dark comedy (Visit Films) — the kind of label buyers at a festival scan before deciding whether to take a closer look.
Rowan is best known for his role in Peaky Blinders; Walley broke through in The Young Offenders. Pairing them as childhood friends in late-Troubles Belfast gives the film a face for audiences who may not know McMenamin's novel but recognise the actors. Whether that combination draws acquisitions interest will play out over the festival week, when sales agents and distributors hold their conversations in the margins of screenings.
Skintown is one of several titles debuting at an Edinburgh festival that has, in recent editions, positioned itself as a launchpad for British and Irish cinema. The full programme runs through 19 August.
