What’s In vs. Out: 2025 Food + Film Edition

Next year's hottest film fruit revealed 🍇

Dec 30, 2024

Incense burning, snow falling, cookies in the oven. These final days of December are ripe with decidedly cozy, brain-off activities. In my mind, nothing decompresses the mind like a silly little list. Following up on last year’s predictions, I’ve conjured up a cheeky forecast of food + film trends we’ll see in 2025.

A Quick Look Back At 2024…

First, I’d like to begin by looking at what was In vs. Out in 2024.

Of course, I was correct in thinking poisoned food and unsightly regurgitations would continue to grace our screens, but even the most casual of pop culture consumers saw those trends coming. I did accurately predict that food-inspired costumes would fall out of favor, instead giving way to more timeless, Fran Lebowitz sensibilities. But I’m the first to admit I had my fair share of miscalculations — or at least, overzealous calculations.

I said big dinner table scenes were out, and while there was some truth to that, we were promptly hit with a wave of iconic smaller dinner table scenes, from Heretic to Speak No Evil. Most disappointingly, I don’t think I saw a single citrus fruit in a 2024 film. Mind you, I still believe all of these predictions were well-informed — but filmmaking is a slow machine. It often takes years for films and television shows to be made, from greenlight to premiere. Though I knew this, having worked in the industry for over a decade, my 2024 trend forecasting was still a little too hasty.

Needless to say, this year’s roundup centers around the press tours and marketing leading up to films we know will be released in 2025, with a few other food-film motifs sprinkled throughout.

2025 Food In Film: What’s “In”:

Scenes from my boy Timmy’s Instagram Livestream

Actors eating foods on press tours

Between the success of shows like Hot Ones and Chicken Shop Date and the heavy investment public relations teams are putting towards video podcasts (and their respective TikTok clips), I’m willing to bet a comedian personality will host a new food-forward show in 2025.

Will Dutch de Carvalho eat New York-style bagels in a bathtub with Rachel Zegler? Will Esther Povitsky go feral in an IT’SUGAR with Daniel Craig? Or, god-forbid, will Cat Cohen pepper Glenn Powell with too-personal questions over a milkshake in Manhattan? (Two straws, one cup-style.)

Look, it might not be pretty, but mark my words, the food-forward video podcast interviews are just getting started.

Actors wriggling around on the floor (which will make all the food-forward press tours quite tricky)

In the past week alone, Kim Kardashian and Kardashian-adjacent Timothée Chalamet have each released lengthy videos of themselves writhing around on the floor. For Kim Kardashian, it was to celebrate Christmas? For little Timmy, it was… to celebrate the release of A Complete Unknown and the brilliance of the Black Eyed Peas?

We may not understand it, but these attention-grabbing antics will only grow in popularity. We can only hope this trend doesn’t result in someone doing the worm on the Hot Ones floor. (Think of the, ahem, aftermath.)

Actors promoting digestive health supplements and adjacent products on their social media.

Let’s face it: Our collective digestive systems have seen better days.

Colon cancer is on the rise, IBS is this holiday season’s juiciest conversation topic, and the bodies of most of today’s young professionals were formed off of a diet of Gushers, SpongeBob krabby patty gummies, and recession-era free lunches.

You just KNOW we’re about two months away from seeing Sydney Sweeney holding up a bottle of aesthetically repackaged prune juice called something like “Regular Ritual.”

Fast Food Drive-Throughs

Between the slate of superhero movies and highly anticipated sequels like Freakier Friday and M3GAN 2.0, we’re all but guaranteed to get a fast food drive-through scene.

Will we see Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan freaking out about french fries (again), or a cursed robot toy chase down Allison Williams as she’s stuck in a slow-moving Starbucks pay-it-forward chain?

My crystal ball doesn’t dole out specifics, only hazy visions of drive-through futures.

2025 Food In Film: What’s “Out”:

Eggs

While 2024 may have been the year of the ovo, eggs will fall — steeply — from grace in 2025. Between the insane egg carton prices and the people’s increasing desire for escapist cinema, even the faintest of egg motifs will send audiences’s suspension of belief to a screeching halt.

Clean Eating

Unfortunately, popular culture is revolting against sane dietary habits. Whether you’re labeled an Almond Mom for daring to limit your carbohydrate intake or a heathen for opting out of the raw milk craze, healthy eating is a big no-no in the eyes of far too many. Healthy food — and what is considered “healthy” — may be too political of a topic for the transportive, recession pop cinema audiences demand.

The good news is we can all get behind indulgence — fast food, desserts, pommes frites — when it’s clear the character is having themselves a little treat. If box office success is the goal, 2025 films would do well to keep any green leafy salads out of frame.

(Independent filmmakers, knock yourselves out. Push the envelope, shoot in a Sweetgreen!)

Survive ‘til ‘25

For my fellow filmmakers out there, we all know the lengths crews have had to go to make a living in the U.S. film industry these past few years. The saying “Survive ‘til ‘25” rolled off the tongue of producers and managers, but it ultimately fell flat against the cold, hard facts about the state of entertainment.

Personally? I think we should resort to the healthy dose of delusion that Hollywood success stories like Jim Carrey are known for. Here’s to thriving thru’ ‘25, baby!

Audience Participation Upcoming: 2025 Oscar Predictions Poll

Following up on last year’s festivities, Film Flavor will be hosting a quick and easy Oscar prediction poll.

Like last year, Film Flavor’s poll will offer something that most prediction polls cannot: An option to vote for your favorite food moments that graced our screens this past year.

Winners will get a shout-out (if wanted) and the data will be reported for all Film Flavorians to see. The poll will be open to all come the end of January 2025, after the nominees are announced, so stay subscribed to get the details.