Charli xcx is taking a break from playing festival main stages and feuding with Taylor Swift to make her acting debut this month at the London Film Festival 2025. The musician has a remarkable seven films in production, including Hundred Nights of Hero, a historical fantasy film based on the book of the same name by Isabel Greenberg.
Whether she will be any good or not remains to be seen, but in the meantime, get acquainted with the source material. The story is a feminist examination about two women who fall in love in a patriarchal society. It follows a bride called Cherry, who is seduced over 100 nights by Manfred, a friend of Cherry’s husband Jerome, who enters a wager with Jerome that he can seduce her. All the while, the couple’s maid Hero conspires with Cherry to evade Manfred’s advances.
Starring Nicholas Galitzine, Emma Corrin, Richard E Grant and Felicity Jones, Hundred Nights of Hero sees Charli xcx make her feature film debut in the role of Rosa, one of a trio of sisters who lead a secret society of women. Charli has three films out at once: the drama Erupcja and comedy Sacrifice have also played film festivals over the past couple of months.
Hundred Nights of Hero: Charli xcx makes acting debut at London Film Festival 2025
Hundred Nights of Hero, originally based on a folklorean story called One Thousand and One Nights, had its world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in September and has a US cinematic release in December.
A trailer follows bride Cherry, played by Maika Monroe, and Emma Corrin’s maid Hero in a tense exchange where the bride is told “If I see not even a hint of pregnancy after 101 nights, you will not see next spring.”
Hundred Nights of Hero plays at the London Film Festival on 19 October. Tickets are currently sold out but check the website daily at 10am for returns, or ask at the in-person box offices outside the participating venues.
Beyond Charli xcx: the best films to catch at London Film Festival 2025
Read City AM’s guide to the best and buzziest films to see at this year’s London Film Festival 2025. This year’s Opening Gala is Daniel Craig’s Wake Up Dead Man, a new edition to the Knives Out franchise, and the Closing Gala is Hundred Nights of Hero.
Is This Thing On? is Bradley Cooper’s third directorial feature film and follows the early career of the Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop, Moss and Freud chronicles the working relationship between Kate Moss and Lucien Freud, and Memory of Princess Mumbi is entirely generated by AI. For a full list of other highlights, read City AM’s guide to the buzziest movies being screened this year.
Plenty of lesser-known films have availability to book now, and the LFF website is searchable via the films with tickets still available if you’d like to make plans ahead of time. To read the full London Film Festival 2025 programme head to whatson.bfi.org.uk.