{"id":480446,"date":"2026-02-14T23:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480446\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T23:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:19:08","slug":"charli-xcx-applauds-berlin-for-not-shying-away-from-political-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480446\/","title":{"rendered":"Charli xcx Applauds Berlin for “Not Shying Away From Political Films”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt was a \u201cBrat\u201d Berlinale on Saturday as music superstar Charli xcx<\/a> landed in the German capital to talk about her mockumentary The Moment<\/a> with director Aidan Zamiri.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair came together for the film\u2019s press conference ahead of its international<\/a> premiere Saturday night, the room overflowing with journalists keen to get a glimpse of the Grammy-winning Brit.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Moment, which had its world premiere at Sundance last month, follows the highs and lows of a popstar\u2019s rise to global fame. Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd, Rosanna Arquette, Hailey Benton Gates, Jamie Demetriou, Rachel Sennott, Kate Berlant, Rish Shah and Kylie Jenner all star.<\/p>\n

\n\tCharli kicked off the presser by discussing how emotional and difficult the \u201cBrat\u201d era was for her. \u201cWhen you release art into the world, and it reaches a wide audience, and in my case, this was the widest audience I ever reached,\u201d she said about the wildly popular album, \u201cthe work begins to sort of morph and change in its meaning. And obviously that\u2019s just what comes with releasing art, period. But I\u2019d never experienced it at the scale before, and it left me sort of thinking a lot about how we communicate art, at what point art leaves your own hands and goes into the audience\u2019s hands, how that makes you feel as a creator.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI also think I am quite an emotional and volatile artist,\u201d she confessed, \u201cas I think many artists are. And I found elements of that journey quite difficult. I just felt that making this film, in a way, was a way of me not only commenting on art and the longevity, [the] lifespan of art, but also dealing with my experience, my very personal experience as an artist, and how I felt in the industry in the music industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe singer also joked about going \u201cmethod\u201d and the inspiration behind some of the situations audiences will see in The Moment: \u201cI think I have definitely come close to those circumstances, especially having been in the music industry for so long. I\u2019ve definitely met versions of characters that we touch on within the film, and I\u2019ve definitely reacted in ways close to the way that I react to the film,\u201d she laughed. \u201cYou know, have I had a breakdown in the back of a [Mercedes] Viano whilst smoking a million cigarettes? Yes. I definitely had a lot to draw on, let\u2019s say, but\u2026 I think I am nicer!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScottish filmmaker Zamiri was asked about casting Jenner and called her the Kardashian sister an \u201cincredible actor.\u201d He said: \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe that Kylie was down to do this\u2026 What\u2019s interesting is that we were able to play with these real-world elements of culture.\u201d He added: \u201cSo it was really helpful to have these almost signposts, the things that we as an audience understand, and whether that be Kylie or Rachel [Sennott\u2019s] cameos or other elements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater in the presser, Charli was asked: Is \u201cBrat\u201d officially over? \u201cMaking this film was quite cathartic, in a way, because I was also able to channel a lot of my frustration that I may have felt in the real world into these heightened scenarios that I was experiencing within\u2026 For me, it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe finished off by lauding the Berlin Film Festival<\/a> in particular for \u201cnot shying away from political films, from films that have a real social angle, from films by directors who really are visionary and have something to say, and I think for me as a producer, as an actor, for Aidan, as a director\u2026 Those are the kinds of films that we love. Those are the films that we want to champion ourselves, and I feel like I\u2019m only just starting out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s been a decidedly apolitical Berlin with jury president Wim Wenders, Golden Bear recipient Michelle Yeoh, and\u00a0Sunny Dancer\u00a0star Neil Patrick Harris all refusing to talk politics so far, to the disapproval of European journalists and, it seems, social media users keeping tags on the headlines coming out of the fest this week. Acclaimed Indian author Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)\u00a0even pulled out of the fest entirely<\/a>\u00a0on Friday\u00a0in response to Wenders<\/a>\u2018 comments that filmmakers \u201chave to stay out of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Berlin Film Festival 2026 runs Feb. 12-22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a \u201cBrat\u201d Berlinale on Saturday as music superstar Charli xcx landed in the German capital to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,242324,106561,447,71538,134,3389,225862,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-480446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-berlin-2026","11":"tag-berlin-film-festival","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-charli-xcx","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-international","16":"tag-the-moment","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}