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Aidan Zamiri is a good hang. I just met the 30-year-old photographer, director and creative polymath — but we already have an inside joke. The table at the lobby bar of London’s Soho Hotel where we’re seated is inexplicably made of Hot Wheels, and we spend the first few minutes of our interview making cracks at its expense. It’s the first Saturday in January, and a dreary one at that, but there’s something about Zamiri’s energy that zaps me out of a winter funk. He’s endlessly expressive, rattling off thoughts a mile a minute as if there are too many to fit in his brain, and it’s infectious.
No wonder Zamiri has found himself in the inner circles of some of the world’s most interesting and sought-after stars, and not just as the visionary behind their music videos or press campaigns, but also as a friend and confidant. Just ask Charli xcx, who enlisted the Scotsman to direct the videos for “360” and “Guess” at the height of the hype over her massive 2024 album “Brat,” or Timothée Chalamet, who collaborated with him on the deliciously deranged press tours for “A Complete Unknown” and “Marty Supreme.”
“Don’t know if you’ve seen any of it!” Zamiri teases, knowing full well that Chalamet’s latest stunts — including shouting from the top of the Sphere in Las Vegas and coordinating ping-pong orange outfits with his mother and girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, on the red carpet — have been seen by everyone.
“I love working with people who have a really clear point of view, and Timmy is an insane force,” he says in a Glaswegian brogue between sips of peppermint tea. “When he is geared into doing something, it’s just super inspiring. I feel like I’ve, by osmosis, locked in.”
Creating pop culture moments for big stars has prepared Zamiri well as he embarks on his own press tour for “The Moment,” his directorial debut starring Charli that follows a fictionalized version of the pop star as she launches her “Brat” tour. The A24 film is one of the splashiest titles premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Until this point, Zamiri has been mysterious — the hype man behind the camera helping the coolest celebrities look even cooler with his unique blend of grunge and high-fashion aesthetics. Now that he’s mastered viral videos, will his talents translate to the big screen?
Our sit-down marks one of Zamiri’s first profiles, but he doesn’t seem nervous. He shares the same effortless cool of his collaborators — after we settle in, he shrugs off a worn-in leather jacket to reveal a blue-checked Ralph Lauren shirt, and a braided rattail pokes out from the bottom of his brunette mop. He just returned from L.A. two days ago — where he was working with both Charli and Chalamet — but Zamiri shows no sign of jet lag, his blue eyes bright as he talks about the whirlwind year that culminated in making his first film.
“This time last year, I knew almost nothing about the process of filmmaking,” Zamiri admits. “So it’s kind of like having a condensed education in all of it. And thank God it was so cool and one of the most intense things I’ve ever done in my life.”
Zamiri met Charli right before “Brat’s” world domination. He directed the music video for the bouncy single “360,” which was released a month before the album’s debut and starred a Rolodex of style icons: Chloë Sevigny, Julia Fox and Rachel Sennott, to name a few. That’s also when he wrote his first “script” — a page and a half for the video’s nearly two-minute opening scene.
“I remember having a really quick table read, and it was the most nervous I’d ever been. I was like, ‘Oh God, what if this is terrible? I respect all these people so much!’” Zamiri recalls. “And they read it and we all laughed, and that was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Just literally that table read.”
Though Charli had been bubbling just below the mainstream for years, the electro-pop music of “Brat” paired with its I-don’t-give-a-fuck lyrics and unapologetic debauchery turned the album into a mindset — and a massive success. It wasn’t long before the term “brat summer” was coined and the adjective was given new meaning: Instead of a moniker for a petulant child, it was a rallying cry for bad bitches with nothing to lose. “Brat” even crossed over into politics when, in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, Charli tweeted: “Kamala IS brat.” Soon, brands from Kate Spade to Hydro Flask were capitalizing on the trend by working the word “brat” or the album’s signature shade of green into their marketing. It was a once-in-a-generation hit.
“How cool and rewarding that that was the most successful thing she’s ever done — something that she felt was such a true expression of her,” Zamiri says. “And then it’s interesting to see something like that become so global and so mass consumed that it became a commercial output for various brands. It felt like a really perfect analogy.”
After the “360” video, Zamiri and Charli started throwing around ideas for a future narrative project, maybe five years on. But things accelerated that fall when the pop star was approached several times about making a “Brat” tour documentary or concert film.
“She was like, ‘Well, that feels like the opposite of what I’ve tried to do with ‘Brat,”’ Zamiri says. “That feels like the expected route of capitalizing on something which has been successful, whereas the bigger swing would be to take a format like that and disrupt it.”
Enter “The Moment.” Filmed mockumentary style with handheld cameras and several fourth-wall breaks, it takes place from September to November 2024, just as “brat summer” is coming to an end. Charli, as an exaggerated version of herself, begins to shoot a concert film with a sinister director (Alexander Skarsgård) and is caught between honoring her artistic vision and crossing over to the commercial dark side. Zamiri’s style is well suited for the project, with parts of it reading like an extended music video, while the more documentary-like scenes have an unpolished feel. Clocking in at an hour and 43 minutes, “The Moment” mixes scripted scenes with real-life footage, including from rehearsals leading up to Charli’s November 2024 London show.
The movie is also boldly funny — Charli’s many brand deals with the likes of Aperol and Magnum are the butt of several jokes, which was “a real feat for A24’s legal team,” Zamiri says. At the same time, it addresses the crisis that comes when you’ve finally made it. Much of that central theme came from an original piece of writing by Charli that was given to Zamiri and his writing partner Bertie Brandes, known for her essays on fashion and feminism.
“[Charli] identified how it felt to achieve everything you’d ever hoped for, something you’d worked for 15 years — and then all you can feel is this dread of knowing that it’s slipping through your fingers immediately,” Zamiri says.
The initial draft of “The Moment” poured out of Zamiri and Brandes in just 10 days. Then they pitched it to A24, which greenlit the film in early 2025 with a $4 million budget. By March, “The Moment” was filming in London. Just as impressive as the movie’s rapid production is its ensemble cast: alongside Charli and Skarsgård, the call sheet includes Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant and Kylie Jenner, whose role may have come to fruition through Zamiri’s connection with a certain A-list actor.
“Kylie and I crossed paths,” Zamiri says with a nervous laugh, not wanting to give too much away. Chalamet and Jenner have been dating for three years and have appeared arm in arm on the red carpet this awards season but remain tight-lipped about one another in the press. “Then we ended up writing a scene with Kylie in mind, and it really became a very pivotal scene in the film. This was Kylie’s first-ever acting role, and I was really surprised that she was so willing and so down. She, like, got it. I think she’s incredible in it.”
What is it about Zamiri that has made Charli trust him with a mockumentary about her? And how did he get Jenner to agree to grace the silver screen? Brandes says it all comes down to Zamiri’s vision. “He’s so good at communicating with people — every single person, from the actors to the lighting guy to me, we all think we have Aidan’s ear and his full attention,” she says. “Everyone wants to work with him because it’s so inspiring and fulfilling. But at the same time, you feel so comforted — you just know he’s going to create something genius.”
“The Moment” will hit theaters on Jan. 30, a week after its Sundance premiere, and has set its European debut at the Berlin Film Festival next month. As a first-time feature filmmaker, Zamiri feels lucky to be getting a nationwide rollout from A24.
“To write something, get it made, shoot it, feel proud of it, have everyone feel excited about it, and then be able to have it go into theaters immediately is such a luxury,” he says. “I have friends who have made incredible films, and it’s taken so long to get funding, to get it made and then to get distribution for it.”
But that doesn’t mean he’s cocky.
“I’m terrified, of course. Are you kidding me?!” Zamiri exclaims, momentarily losing his cool and nearly spilling his tea.
“I’m very conscious that there is so much stuff made all the time, and I don’t want to ever contribute to noise in general,” Zamiri continues, taking a more serious tone. “There’s also the responsibility of communicating something which feels true and correct and meaningful. And I feel good about that. I’m sure there will be a mixed reception to it, or maybe everyone will love it! Who knows. But I feel really confident that it feels like me and it feels like Charli and it feels like us.”
By the time “The Moment” premieres at Sundance, it will have been a year and a half since the birth of “Brat.” Should the movie be considered its death knell?
“We’re sort of hoping this is almost… I don’t want to say a thesis statement, but it feels like a reflective thought on ‘Brat,’” Zamiri says. “Having it premiere in January feels thematic in some way. There’s something nice about perhaps nodding to the feeling of, this again?”
Even if “Brat” summer may be finally coming to an end, Zamiri’s collaboration with Charli is just getting started. Though nothing is set in stone, as the singer continues to further her acting career, there’s been talk of second feature ideas along with Brandes.
“The hope is that we try to jump into something quickly,” he says. “’The Moment’ was so based in the real world, it would be cool to perhaps do something that feels like the opposite.”
English (US) ·