Coldplay Releasing ‘Kaleidoscopic Patchwork Quilt’ Short Movie ‘A Film For the Future’ Created By 150 Artist From 45 Countries

Coldplay are gearing up to release a short film they’ve been low-key teasing for almost five years. The band announced the new project, A Film For the Future, on Tuesday morning (Jan. 14), calling the 44-minute movie a visual companion to their recent album Moon Music, which became their first Billboard 200 No. 1 album in 10 years last year.

The film will premiere worldwide on YouTube on Jan. 22 via 360-degree screenings at the Lightroom in London, the Lightroom at Factory International at Aviva Studios in Manchester and Lightroom Seoul in Seoul, South Korea; that same day a fan-led remix of the movie powered by Microsoft AI will launch here.

A minute-long trailer describes the creative process for compiling the footage for the film, which began in the summer of 2024, when more than 150 visual artists from 45 countries were given a handful of short Moon Music audio snippets and asked to create some accompanying visuals. According to a release announcing, “there were no rules or guidelines, and no knowledge of other artists’ creations,” as well as no direction other than to follow their inspiration.

“We’re very grateful to all the amazing artists who lent their genius to this film,” the band said in a statement. “They’ve created something very beautiful and we’re extremely proud of it.”

The ensuing preview features a wild mash-up of visual styles, from trippy digital collage to dancing AI bubble people, photo montage, found footage, nature visuals and animation. Executive producer Ben Mor — who directed the 2016 video for the Coldplay/Beyoncé collab “Hymn For the Weekend” — called the resulting Koyaanisqatsi-like visual mindtrip a “kaleidoscopic patchwork quilt — a 44-minute multimedia tapestry.”

He added, “It was a huge privilege to have the bird’s eye view of such an ambitious project, working with so many incredible animators and filmmakers all working independently of each other. The final film is simply jaw-dropping and I can’t wait for Coldplay’s fans to see it.”

Tickets for the three immersive screenings — where the film will be projected on a 36-foot screen across four walls and the floor — can be purchased here, while other fans can tune in worldwide on the band’s YouTube page on Jan. 22.

The release noted that Coldplay have been working a long con on fans since 2019, when they first teased the movie on a license plate in the artwork for their Everyday Life album that read “FFTF2024.” In addition, a segment of the project appeared in the July 2024 multi-media lyric video for their Moon Music single “feelslikeimfallinginlove.”

The AI-powered remix project will use Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI to create a unique, immersive experience for each user, with no two results the same. Coldplay’s record-breaking Music of the Spheres world tour was back on the road last week for a four-show run of stadium shows in Abu Dhabi; they will move on to Mumbai, India on January 18 for three gigs at DY Patil Stadium.

Watch the A Film For the Future trailer below.