AfroIndex.org, a recently launched project to create a visual reference archive for accurate and conscious representation of black hairstyles, for artists and for everyone.
by creator Carmahn McCalla
by creator Carmahn McCalla
Record-breaking box office for Backrooms and Obsession has opened the door for twentysomething YouTube creators as the industry rethinks what audiences want
At this time last year, the idea of a wide-release feature film-maker cutting their teeth on YouTube was, if not unheard of, certainly still a niche origin story. Siblings Michael and Danny Philippou had just released Bring Her Back, the follow-up to their surprise horror hit Talk to Me, to pretty-good reviews and OK box office; clearly they would continue to work, but the slightly diminished returns didn’t predict a YouTube explosion. Nor did the outright lousiness of Shelby Oaks, from longtime YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, when it premiered in theaters later in 2025. Generous horror-festival buzz died down as more people actually laid eyes on the movie; Stuckmann was an obvious enthusiast, and some saw promise in his first effort, but a clumsy found-footage pastiche without much emotional sense didn’t seem like the next big thing, either.
But in 2026, something has shifted. In January, YouTuber Markiplier self-released his adaptation of the video game Iron Lung to theaters, and it outgrossed any number of big-studio titles. Then Curry Barker, whose comedy sketches have been a YouTube fixture, unveiled his feature debut Obsession. The film, made for under a million dollars, has become the box office phenomenon of the summer so far, managing a virtually unheard-of feat when its second and third weekends actually outgrossed its first. Obsession is sharing multiplex space with Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, who previously brought the spooky internet meme to life in a series of YouTube shorts. Despite being set in a series of purgatorial, sparsely furnished, fluorescent-lit “liminal spaces”, it was the top movie at the North American box office this weekend, poised to become the biggest-grossing movie from distributor A24 in a matter of days. Backrooms also opened to bigger numbers than any number of starrier or bigger-brand 2026 titles like Wuthering Heights, Scream 7, The Devil Wears Prada 2 or the last Pixar movie. That makes three YouTube-trained film-makers who have presided over some of this year’s biggest and/or most surprising hits. With them have come countless social media posts about how YouTube, not film school, provides the real training tomorrow’s directors need.
Continue reading...Met says non-fatal stabbings took place after most of the crowds had dispersed on Sunday evening
Six people were stabbed after Arsenal’s Premier League victory parade in north London on Sunday, police have said.
The Metropolitan police said the stabbings took place in the evening after most of the crowds had dispersed. Twenty-four people were arrested.
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Grand Theft Auto cheat users have discovered that even the people selling ways around the rules struggle to follow some basic security ones. According to breach notification site Have I Been Pwned, the operators of Atlas Menu, a cheat service for Grand Theft Auto V and Counter-Strike 2, suffered a data breach in May that exposed information belonging to tens of thousands of users after an attacker allegedly gained access to the service's systems and dumped its database online. The breach exposed 64,000 unique email addresses, according to HIBP. The leaked data also included usernames, IP addresses, support tickets, and passwords stored as bcrypt hashes. The individual who claimed responsibility for the breach published the stolen database to a public GitHub repository, claiming to have gained access to "all Atlas systems" before extracting customer records, support conversations, menu license keys, signup dates, and Rockstar Games account identifiers. The data, reviewed by The Register, also appears to include lists of thousands of banned users, administrator logs, and other internal records. Posts discussing the breach on Reddit suggest this was not Atlas Menu's first security incident, but users said the latest leak appears to contain significantly more sensitive information than previous disclosures. Anyone signing up for a GTA cheat service probably wasn't expecting privacy guarantees. Even so, having your email address leaked is one thing. Having support tickets, account identifiers, and purchase records dumped onto GitHub is another. The Atlas breach comes weeks after Rockstar Games was pulled into a separate data leak claimed by ShinyHunters. In that case, the extortion crew alleged it had accessed Rockstar data through cloud cost-monitoring platform Anodot and threatened to publish the information unless its demands were met. Atlas users now have their own security headache to deal with. Whether they're more concerned about the leaked database or the screenshot-spying allegation will likely depend on what they were doing while the software was running. ®
Legendary film editor Marcia Lucas died last week. Lucas edited Star Wars (won an Oscar for it), Taxi Driver, Return of the Jedi, and American Graffiti. It was Marcia that suggested to George Lucas that Darth Vader kill Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Rights advocates and researchers are highlighting mounting political indoctrination and criminal prosecution facing children in Russia.
LONDEN (ANP/BLOOMBERG/RTR) - De Britse regering heeft opnieuw documenten vrijgegeven over de benoeming van Peter Mandelson tot ambassadeur in de Verenigde Staten. Het gaat onder meer om e-mails en andere tekstberichten die binnen de overheid circuleerden. Het is een grote publicatie en Britse media onderzoeken nog of er gevoelige informatie in staat.
De autoriteiten publiceerden op internet ongeveer 1500 pagina's aan documenten die verband houden met de omstreden benoeming. Mandelson trad in 2025 aan als ambassadeur en werd al na enkele maanden ontslagen. Dat gebeurde nadat nieuwe informatie naar buiten was gekomen over zijn banden met de rijke zedendelinquent Jeffrey Epstein.
De positie van premier Keir Starmer staat onder druk door de rel rond zijn prominente partijgenoot. Critici zetten vraagtekens bij zijn beoordelingsvermogen. Binnen de regerende Labourpartij bestaat ook grote onvrede over Starmer om andere redenen, zoals een grote nederlaag bij lokale verkiezingen eerder dit jaar.
​Een man op een opiniepagina vindt heel wat anders dan wat iedereen vindt. Sterker nog: hij vindt júist wat anders. Het zit namelijk helemaal niet zoals we tot nu toe overal hebben gelezen. Dat is je reinste onzin, betoogt de man die op de opiniepagina van een landelijke krant staat.
“We zijn veel te makkelijk meegegaan in dat frame”, schrijft de man. “Maar als je er wat langer bij stilstaat, en het ook eens van de andere kant bekijkt, steekt de vork dan niet heel anders in de steel?” vraagt hij zich retorisch af.
Hoewel experts de stellingname van de man in twijfel trekken, is hij tevreden met zijn bijdrage. Op zijn LinkedIn staat dat hij een belangrijke mening heeft die nu op een opiniepagina van een gezaghebbende krant te lezen is.
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