It’s the end of an era! More than a year after brat summer took the world by storm, this winter is all about Charli XCX in Park City, Utah, as she sheds that pop icon persona for an onscreen pivot.
As the Sundance Institute prepares to uproot its 45-year film festival next year, the 3x Grammy winner headlined a double-feature on Friday at the Eccles Theatre, where the world premieres of Gregg Araki’s directorial return, I Want Your Sex, and writer-director Aidan Zamiri’s feature debut, The Moment, both took place, both featuring memorable performances from Charli.
“Right now, unlike the me in [The Moment], I am sort of really wanting brat to stop,” she said, eliciting laughs from the crowd at the mockumentary’s debut. “And actually really pivot as far away from it as possible. And that’s not because I don’t love it, it’s just because I think for all of us as artists, you wanna challenge yourself.”
In I Want Your Sex, Araki’s first feature in a decade, Charli struts her comedic chops as Minerva, a character the director described as the “bitchy American girlfriend” of Cooper Hoffman’s Elliot, who takes a job as artist Erika Tracy’s (Olivia Wilde) sexual muse. Murder and questionable power dynamics ensue on this star-studded sex romp.
Noting that Charli is actually in three movies at this year’s festival, including Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, and that Wilde is also headlining her own double-feature with The Invite, which she starred in and directed, Araki raved on the red carpet, “This is like the Charli XCX, Olivia Sundance, and we’re all just happy to be here.”
Immediately following I Want Your Sex, Charli debuted her onscreen opus in director Aidan Zamiri’s The Moment. A meta mockumentary about a rising star embarking on her first arena tour, the film explores Charli’s meteoric success through a hyper-pop comedy about the absurd nature of fame and the struggle to maintain her sense of identity and creative freedom.
“Obviously, this film is about the end of brat summer,” noted Zamiri after the screening. “But hopefully, everyone can in some way find how it relates to them and the terror of letting something go.”
Fans don’t have to look far for the similarities in Charli the character and Charli the real-life pop star, who took a day off from her nonstop brat tour to join Araki’s talented young ensemble, which includes Mason Gooding and Chase Sui Wonders, as well as a roster of some familiar Araki collaborators.
Rish Shah, Alexander Skarsgard, Rosanna Arquette, Jamie Demetriou, Aidan Zamiri, Charli XCX and Isaac Powell at Deadline’s Sundance 2026 Portrait Studio on Jan. 23, 2026 in Park City, Utah
Josh Telles/Deadline
“She came to set right after performing at some stadium. It was incredible, it was so fantastic,” recalled Hoffman of filming with Charli. “And she did this whole long, incredible show, and then showed up and killed it. She plays my girlfriend who doesn’t want to have sex with me, and she’s hilarious.”
With The Gallerist making its premiere on Saturday, it’s been a busy year for Charli, who in addition to wrapping up her brat tour, delivered standout performances in films like Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero, Pete Ohs’ Erupcja and Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice. If the reception at Sundance is any indicator, Charli will have no problem adding “movie star” to her extensive resume.
Charli explained that as an artist, “you wanna totally switch the kind of creative soup you’re in and go and live in a different bowl for a while, and just feel enriched by that. And I think that’s how I feel about the projects I’m taking on in film. I really just want to work with these incredible directors, like Aidan, Gregg Araki, Cathy Yan, who I feel like I can just live completely different lives with.”
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