Interview: Director Simon Ryninks On His New Film, Out There (2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival)

Ahead of the 2026 Edinburgh Film Festival, Hailey Passmore sat down and spoke with writer-director Simon Ryninks about his newest film Out There. 

Rebellious sixteen-year-old Maz (Nerys Stocks) lives with her family in a small seaside town in Wales. Years after her father’s disappearance, she slowly becomes convinced that her answers have something to do with one specific UFO sighting. On a mission, she is joined by her best friend, Little Elis (Tom Moya), sceptical of her endeavour, of course, and UFO conspiracy theorist Bryn (Aneurin Barnard). Together, their search leads her on an extraordinary and life-changing journey. Along the way she rediscovers the meaning and importance of family, friendship and that feeling of belonging once more. 

In our conversation, Simon and Hailey discussed how the script came to fruition, the importance of these Welsh UFO sightings, his filmmaking and casting process, and overall the importance of family and friends. Here is what Simon had to say:

TPM: Well, thank you for popping on with me today, and congratulations on the film. I look forward to how it does at the film festival. So congratulations.

Simon: Thanks so much.

TPM: Are you excited for it?

Simon: Yeah. Very excited. It’s been seven years to get to this point from where I first had the idea. So yeah, to see it in such esteemed company with those other films that are part of the competition and to get the chance to watch it with audiences. Especially homegrown audiences. It’s going to be, you know, really great.

TPM: That’s exciting. And speaking of the film itself, even though it focuses on a lot of aliens and science fiction, did you use archive footage, or anything like that? What brought the story to you?

Simon: It began in a personal place; I lost my mother, and I was experiencing grief. I sort of found myself returning to West Wales a lot, which is where I spent a lot of my childhood and our family’s from [there]. I felt this urge to film something that was set in that landscape. That dealt with grief in some way, and I knew I wanted to do that in a lighthearted, sort of gentle, comedic way. So I sort of had a sense of place and a sense of theme. But it wasn’t until I learned about Wales’ UFO history that the idea kind of took shape. In the 1970s, there was this spate of UFO sightings, which were really important UFO sightings within UFO history. And they kind of cover the gamut of all UFO stories from abductions to military cover-ups, to you name it. So there was a lot, kind of, inspiration to draw from in those stories and the more research I did, the more that I felt this was a way to explore grief, not because of, well, you know, these are people sort of searching for meaning, searching for answers that were all kind of elusive. And I really could kind of resonate with that as someone who was looking for those kinds of answers myself. That’s where the idea kind of came from.

TPM: I’m so very sorry for your loss. But as you think about it, it is, you can feel that when you’re watching [Out There], you can feel the emotion and how much background there is in it. Speaking of which, did you…I noticed each character had their own personality. No matter who it was. Did you write characters, depict each character before starting the script process?

Simon: I think sometimes characters come and they’re kind of fully formed. I think Bryn [(Barnard)] was one of those characters where I just felt like I understood Bryn from the get-go. And you know, it was clear what he needed to do in the film. And then other characters kind of take shape as you’re writing. Maz [(Stocks)] was always quite clear to me. Definitely developed as the different drafts took shape. Little Elis [(Moya)], I think, took a long time to kind of find Little Elis and understand what his journey was, what his voice was like. But yeah, I mean, I’m empathetic towards my characters always. I wanna give them all proper arcs and proper journeys. And sometimes to the detriment of the film. Because I’m spending so much time focusing on the characters that probably don’t need to be focused on all that much. It’s just very important to me to understand these characters as people. So even someone like Morgan [(Matthew Aubrey)], the villain, the soldier. You know, went through loads of drafts trying to understand what this guy’s motivation was, and why he was acting this way. I think, you know, it could very easily be pantomime-villain material, and at times I kind of utilised that a bit. It was important to kind of find a real person and to find the real person within all those characters. Of course, casting helps with that as well.

TPM: I think it definitely comes across as though that’s what you did. I feel as if it adds to the film, like you said it might have been a detriment to [films], but I think it helps [Out There] and gives it more personality and ways for us to empathise with each character. No matter who it is. And it helps us follow each character no matter who it is. And makes the film — not in a way, in a bad way — but it allows us to follow the film and want us to know what each character goes through in their own way. So thank you for that.

Simon: Thank you.

TPM: And like you just said, along with each character is the casting. So what was the casting process like?

Simon: It was a really joyous experience. I had two brilliant casting directors: Olivia Brittain and  Jessie Frost — who worked really hard to kind of find the best talent in Wales and create this ensemble cast. Because it is a big cast and wasn’t an easy job to kind of find all these people. 

In the case of Maz and Little Elis, I knew they needed to be sort of unknown people, people you hadn’t seen a lot of in films and television before. So we basically met with loads of young people coming out of drama school or coming out of secondary school, or from amateur dramatic clubs, those kinds of things. You know, kids. Maz (Nerys) was sixteen when we shot the film. She really is that age, and that was really important to me. When I saw Tom and Nerys, and I saw their tapes, I knew that they would be brilliant in these roles. That they were kind of embodying the characters already in a way, but sort of had their own takes on those characters and their own spins, which made them a refreshing and exciting thing for me to see. You always want your actors and your collaborators to kind of take and be presented with something that is an improvement on what you have, and they definitely did that.

In the adult roles, it was more of a longer journey, a different journey. It was more sort of finding the right people, sending offers out. In the case of Shifty Grift, I’d written the part with Michael Sheen in mind. It was such a long shot that he would ever actually do it. It felt at times just very, very unlikely. But we persevered, and we persisted. We kept sending him offer letter after offer letter. In the hope that he would take it seriously. He came through quite last minute, having, I think, only just had the time really to sit down and read the script. But he, the character, really resonated with him. He felt like it was very authentic. That it was the kind of character that he hadn’t played before. So it was an exciting proposition for him. He just came in and absolutely nailed it. 

The same is true of Aneurin Barnard, who Bryn, as I said, was this very clear character in my head right from the get-go. But Aneurin does something very different with it. Again like elevates it to a whole other level. The process of casting him was just recognising that he was someone who has the intensity to play a role like this. And is going to deliver and surprise, which he did. The same is true of all the cast, really. It was a lengthy but very enjoyable process. It’s just so exciting to see characters come to life. And see these different versions of people who have lived in your head each take shape.

TPM: As well with that, because you have all these space and science fiction elements, even just the family elements as well, do you think there’s something that was the most difficult part for you that now that it’s come to life, that you’re the most proud of?

Simon: Is there something that was the most difficult that I am the most proud of?

TPM: Well yeah like, is there something that was difficult that once you figured it out and it came to fruition that you’d be the most proud of?

Simon: I mean it’s a hugely ambitious film, you know? It doesn’t maybe seem like it, but there’s so much to it that is just kind of, for our budget, was just kind of insane to attempt, quite frankly. Just things like having child actors, and there’s quite a lot of kids in this film. Managing schedules with child labour laws is very difficult. That’s a level of ambition. Then we’ve got the UFO, sci-fi elements, all these VFS and special effects that had to come in. It sounds mad, but just putting two actors on the roof of a shed is an incredibly complicated thing to achieve. Had to do all kinds of propositions for how we would just get them up there. In the end, it’s kind of just like, well, they could just climb a ladder, but no, they can’t. They have to go up stairs, have to be strapped in. All kinds of stuff.

But in answer to your question, probably blowing up the camper van. Was probably the thing. When I wrote that, I didn’t think about how complicated that would be. I just thought it would be funny. And then, you know, several years later we’re like “okay we’ve got to blow up a camper van, I guess”. Actually it didn’t turn out to be that difficult to do. It’s surprisingly easy to blow up a camper van if you’ve got the right people. That was a really fun thing to do, to witness. I think it kind of quietly, or quite loudly, adds an extra layer of production value to the film. Which is quite surprising and fun. So probably that.

*Please note it was at this point in the interview when we had to cut out what was said due to spoilers of the film.

Out There plays at the 2026 Edinburgh Film Festival on August 14th, 15th, 16th and 18th.

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Hailey Passmore

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