David William James Elliott's short film I Forgot to Unsubscribe from a Stock Footage Service, which has garnered awards and critical acclaim on the independent circuit, is set to debut on YouTube on July 24, 2026. The film, inspired by the all-too-common experience of forgetting to cancel a free trial, follows a filmmaker who resorts to increasingly desperate measures to reclaim his money using the very stock footage he is stuck with. The piece blends memoir, metatextual documentary, and existential horror, reflecting on the plight of aging millennials trapped in the service industry.
During its festival run, the film accumulated dozens of awards, including Best Stunt and Best Female Director—despite being directed by a man and composed entirely of stock footage. It also received recognition for its voice work, writing, editing, and a homage to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive recreated with stock clips. This bizarre array of accolades has inspired an upcoming project exposing scam film festivals, though Elliott remains tight-lipped until filming concludes.
Elliott, an MIT and Stanford graduate with training at Second City, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Steppenwolf, and The Annoyance, and a BJJ Black Belt, notably turned down an opportunity to write for Saturday Night Live in 2012 to build sustainable farms. He credits the subscription mishap with reigniting his return to the arts, leading to five other film projects and a poetry book released in the past six months. "I was happy making one-off appearances on murder mystery shows and helping with camera work," Elliott said. "But a combination of being stuck with that subscription and receiving a free waiver from the Milwaukee Film Festival inspired this project."
The film's YouTube debut will be hosted on the newly launched channel of RIOUGA (Royal Institute of Objectively Universally Good Art), a startup production company co-founded by Juan Sebastian Carcosa and David Elliott. Described as "PBS meets Adult Swim, for burnouts, by burnouts," RIOUGA aims to explore fine art and niche subcultures, developing interview series and a collection of short films and documentaries for release throughout the summer and fall. The company positions itself as a counterpoint to AI and corporate polish, intending to inspire people to revisit old hobbies and dreams.
