Curry Barker on Making 'Obsession' without Film School & Winning the Future of Filmmaking Award

you don't need uh film school. Maybe this wasn't true 20 years ago, but watch videos where people talk about lighting, people talk about what different focal lengths look like on the face, what what different T-stops do to to when you're opening the iris, what does it do, you know? Um you can learn so much from YouTube.

>> So, IndieWire turned 30 years old this past June. And we have always been and always tried to be at the forefront of new talent and having conversations about exciting new creators. In the past, I I can think of so many examples, Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, the Safdie brothers, Nathan Fielder. Um we've always been about challenging bold

new storytellers that are really pushing boundaries. So, I can't think of a better way to celebrate that mission than what we're about to do now, which I'm going to let uh our editor-in-chief Brent Lang explain. >> Yes, so when we were thinking about handing out this award, I wish I could say there was a lot of deliberation, but

it was very, very clear that it should be Cory Barker. And that's because at the age of 25, Cory edited, wrote, and directed Obsession. He made it for less than a million dollars. It went to TIFF, where it scared the you know what out of everybody. It scored a one of the biggest distribution deals in the

festival's history from Focus. Then it was released in the summer, where it became a complete global phenomenon. It grossed more than 525 million dollars, becoming the highest-grossing horror film of the year. But more important than that, it announced Cory as a major filmmaker, somebody who really understood the camera and how to terrorize us uh terrify us, and