When Albert Birney was seven years old, his grandmother gave him a Nintendo for his birthday. That gift inspired a lifelong love of gaming that led directly to his new movie, OBEX. The film, which Birney directed, stars in, and wrote along with friend and fellow filmmaker Pete Ohs (who himself just directed the new Charlie XCX movie Erupcja), tells the story of Conor, a man who lives a life of seclusion and finds himself trapped inside a 1987 computer game.
The film’s trailer, which IGN is debuting exclusively and can be viewed in the player above, shows off the black and white, dreamlike horror of being trapped inside OBEX’s 8-bit “hellscape.” Birney, who’s acted in films like I Saw the TV Glow, is no stranger to games and game development. In fact, he created the 2021 game Tux and Fanny, a retro-inspired adventure puzzle game featuring multiple playable characters with interwoven storylines.
Birney says his purchase of a Nintendo Switch in 2020 during the COVID lockdown reignited his passion for gaming and led him to eventually create OBEX.
“In my 20s and 30s I didn't really think about games as much,” Birney says. “I stopped playing them. Only during the lockdown of 2020 did I get a Nintendo Switch and rediscover my love of video games. And not just playing them, I started animating Tux and Fanny in the style of 8-bit video games and eventually made a video game based on those animations. I realized that while I've been deeply inspired by so many films and filmmakers in my life, I am equally inspired by video games.
“I've been embracing that more. So all that kind of led to OBEX, which is, maybe the first explicit film I've made that is very much directly inspired by video games like Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. The games that meant so much to me when I was younger and still mean so much to me just because they're very deep within my identity and how I see the world.”
When does OBEX premiere?
In addition to the trailer, IGN can exclusive reveal that OBEX will hit theaters January 9, 2026. The release comes nearly a year after the film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
For more on OBEX, check out our 8/10 review and find out why we called it “a lo-fi stunner of a video game movie, merging a deeper understanding of the way games work with playful and creative sequences that also pack a deeply emotional punch.”
Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton
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