Few cultural figures embody the 2026 film industry better than Curry Barker. After writing and directing one of the year’s biggest box office hits in “Obsession,” Barker became the face of a new group of young filmmakers who took nontraditional paths to Hollywood and are helping bring Gen Z audiences to theaters. It made him a natural choice to receive IndieWire’s inaugural Future of Filmmaking Award at our Los Angeles Summit on Saturday, October 17.
During the event, Barker sat down with IndieWire’s VP, editorial strategy Chris O’Falt for a wide-ranging conversation about his process, career, and advice for young filmmakers hoping to follow a similar path.
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Barker discussed moving from Alabama to Los Angeles, where he met his future collaborator Cooper Tomlinson. The two soon dropped out of film school to focus on making short films for their That’s a Bad Idea YouTube channel. The road eventually led him to make “Obsession” and his upcoming feature “Anything But Ghosts,” which had already wrapped before “Obsession” took the box office by storm. Both films are original ideas — though he cautioned that the “lessons” to be learned from his success have more to do with the value of quality storytelling than audiences preferring one type of film over another.
“I can only speak to what makes me go to the theater,” Barker said. “I think the lesson to be learned is that we crave good stories. And that doesn’t necessarily mean IP. But it also doesn’t necessarily mean original. Like if an original movie fails, the lesson shouldn’t be that originals don’t work and we go back to IP. The lesson should be ‘Oh, this movie probably sucked.’”
Barker also expressed his optimism about cinema’s future as a medium thanks to an influx of theater attendance from younger audiences. He even offered his own theories about why Gen Z has become our largest ticket-buying demographic.
“Maybe we’re all just tired of being in our house on our phones, and COVID was horrible,” he said. “The theater is just a cool place! It’s perfect for Gen Z, because you’re going to have social interactions, but you’re not expected to talk to anybody. You can just put your phone away for two hours and have a collective experience with humans without having to talk to them!”
Watch the complete conversation with Barker in the video above.
IndieWire Future of Filmmaking 2026 Summit is presented by AT&T Untold Stories, an impactful multi-year collaboration between AT&T and Tribeca Festival that awards $1.2 million dollars, mentorship, and comprehensive support to the next generation of filmmakers looking to bring their films to the big screen. For more information, visit here.