In advanced gas turbine technology, lean premixed combustion is an effective strategy to reduce peak temperature and thus, NO[Formula: see text] emissions. The swirler is adopted to establish recirculation flow zone, enhancing mixing and stabilizing the flame. Therefore, the swirling flow is dominant in the combustor flow field and has impact on the vane. This paper mainly investigates the swirling flow effect on the turbine first stage vane cooling system by conducting a group of numerical simulations. Firstly, the numerical methods of turbulence modeling using RANS and LES are compared. The computational model of one single swirl flow field is considered. Both the RANS and LES results give reasonable recirculation zone shape. When comparing the velocity distribution, the RANS results generally match the experimental data but fail to at some local area. The LES modeling gives better results and more detailed unsteady flow field. In the second step, the RANS modeling is incorporated to investigate the vane film cooling performance under the swirling inflow boundary condition. According to the numerical results, the leading edge film cooling is largely altered by the swirling flow, especially for the swirl core-leading edge aligned case. Compared to the pressure side, the suction side film cooling is more sensitive to the swirling flow. Locally, the film cooling jet is lifted and turned by the strong swirling flow.