Cult Short Film 'I Forgot to Unsubscribe from a Stock Footage Service' to Premiere on YouTube

David William James Elliott's cult hit short film I Forgot to Unsubscribe from a Stock Footage Service, which has garnered dozens of awards on the independent circuit, will debut on YouTube on July 24, 2026. The film, inspired by the all-too-common experience of forgetting to cancel a free trial and being charged an annual fee, follows a filmmaker who uses the stock footage he is stuck with in increasingly desperate schemes to reclaim his money. The piece is described as part memoir, part metatextual documentary, and part existential horror film for aging millennials trapped in the service industry.

During its festival run, the film accumulated accolades including Best Stunt and Best Female Director—despite being directed by a man and comprised entirely of stock footage. It also received recognition for its voice work, writing, editing, and a loving homage to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive recreated with stock clips. This bizarre selection of awards has inspired an upcoming project exposing scam film festivals.

Elliott, an MIT and Stanford graduate with training from Second City, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Steppenwolf, and The Annoyance, and a BJJ Black Belt, famously walked away from an opportunity to write for Saturday Night Live in 2012 to build sustainable farms in developing nations. He credits the subscription mishap with his return to the arts, which has led to five other film projects and a poetry book released in the past six months.

The YouTube premiere coincides with the launch of RIOUGA (Royal Institute of Objectively Universally Good Art), an independent arts and culture production company founded by Elliott and Juan Sebastian Carcosa. Described as 'PBS meets Adult Swim, for burnouts, by burnouts,' RIOUGA aims to explore fine art and niche subcultures, developing interview series, short films, and documentaries for release throughout summer and fall. The company positions itself as a counterpoint to AI and corporate polish, intending to inspire people to return to their hobbies and dreams.