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.”
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.
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. She gets all kinds of advice, including from Jenner, who suggests, “The second you think people are getting sick of you, that’s when you have to go even harder.”
“I think I am, as an artist, quite a volatile person,” Charli said onstage after the premiere. “And nice, though. I am quite nice too … right? But having been in the music industry since I was 16, it’s like I’ve gone through various different stages in my career where I’ve felt on top of the world or felt like absolute s—. … For me, I’ve had a lot of practice reacting to all of those different characters in my real life, so I think I was drawing from that really.”
The filmmakers said an inspiration for the movie’s tone was the late Rob Reiner’s 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap.”
Still, if Charli is ready to close the “brat” chapter, her fans may be harder to convince.
Ticket holders and festival volunteers lined up outside the theater in the snow on Friday night wearing lime-green beanies — a promotional item from the film — and holding copies of the album.
“I feel like she has been big for a while, but not as popular as she deserves,” said Hibba Ahmed, 21, from Salt Lake City.
“I love her confidence. … The brand that she’s built people are so easily able to recognize and identify with,” said Gabrielle Held, 23, a production assistant from Atlanta. “It can be interpreted in so many different ways, and everybody can enjoy it for different reasons.”
When asked whether they are ready to say goodbye to “brat,” some fans in line said they are on board for whatever Charli’s evolution may involve.
“She said she wants to get into film. She wrote a lot about it in her Substack,” said Emma Roth-Wells, 23, who lives in Salt Lake City, adding that it’s “exciting.” “I do hope she also continues her music.”
At the movie’s after-party, police on horseback forcefully pushed people away from the crowded door at the Premiere lounge on Main Street, where partygoers on the list were given brat-green wristbands to enter.
Inside, as a DJ spun Rihanna, the Verve and, yes, Charli XCX, bartenders served cocktails in Poppi soda cans branded with “The Moment.” Among the attendees were stars from Charli’s other film that premiered that night, “I Want Your Sex,” including Hoffman and Chase Sui Wonders, as well as local celebrity John Barlow, the husband of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s” Lisa Barlow, the self-anointed queen of Sundance.
Charli’s moment at Sundance continues on Saturday, where audiences will get their first look at “The Gallerist.”
She is attending the festival in a particularly significant year, its last in Park City before moving to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027 and its first since the death of its founder, Robert Redford.
Though Charli may seem ubiquitous in Park City this year, not everyone at Sundance, an event that draws cinephiles from all corners of culture, was aware of her.
In a line for a panel on environmental films Friday afternoon, one attendee mentioned that night’s upcoming “The Moment” premiere to his friends.
“Who’s Charli XCX?” one friend asked.
“Remember ‘brat summer’?” he said.
“Vaguely,” she replied.
At least in that Sundance line, when it comes to moving on from brat, Charli may already be getting her wish.
Rebecca Keegan is the senior Hollywood reporter for NBC News Digital, where she covers the entertainment industry.
