PARK CITY, Utah — This is the year Charli XCX is ready to let “brat” die.
The British pop star, whose sixth studio album became a cultural and commercial phenomenon synonymous with an attitude of spiky independence in 2024, is moving on to a new passion: film. And she has unofficially launched her new chapter here at the Sundance Film Festival with “The Moment.”
The A24 film, directed by Aidan Zamiri and co-written by Zamiri and Bertie Brandes, is a satire about Charli’s life at the height of her fame, at the end of “brat summer” in 2024 as she was preparing to embark on her first arena tour.
The movie, which will open in theaters Jan. 30, stars Charli as herself, Alexander Skarsgård as a pompous director trying to take over her tour and Rosanna Arquette as a steely record label head, and it includes cameos from stars like Kylie Jenner, Julia Fox and Rachel Sennott.
“Right now, unlike the me in the film, I am sort of like really wanting ‘brat’ to stop and actually pivot, like as far away as possible,” Charli said from the stage of Sundance’s 2,500-seat Eccles Theatre. “And that’s not because I don’t love it. It’s just because I think for all of us as artists, you want to challenge yourself and … totally switch the creative soup that you’re in and go and live in a different bowl for a while and feel enriched by that.”
The cast of “The Moment” at the premiere Friday night.sundanceorg
Charli is definitely entering new creative territory in 2026. In addition to “The Moment,” she has acting roles in two other films at Sundance, Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex,” in which she plays a character who fakes an orgasm with Cooper Hoffman, and an art world satire called “The Gallerist” with Natalie Portman and Zach Galifianakis, which premieres Saturday night.
“They call it XCX Dance I hear,” Zamiri joked onstage when festival director Eugene Hernandez mentioned Charli’s diverse slate.
She also wrote the soundtrack for the new Warner Bros. film “Wuthering Heights,” starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, which opens Feb. 13.
“The Moment,” however, is the project that showcases Charli front and center.
The artist previously described a brat as someone who likes to party, “says some dumb things sometimes” and is “honest, blunt and a little bit volatile.” After the release of “brat,” the album became an aesthetic, with its signature green color and typeface turning up in memes and even in messaging from the Kamala Harris campaign.
A24 and Charli XCX created a “the moment generator” online, where fans can create their own neon, all caps text similar to the film’s aesthetic.bratgenerator.com
In the film, the once-underground club artist is seen feeling disoriented by her new mainstream success and barraged by people who want to capitalize on it in questionable ways.