Altman’s affinity for using a zoom lens to capture entire master shots without breaking the edit became a driving force for me and my cinematographer, Maya Bankovic. It became a fun challenge to see how dynamic we could make a shot with never once moving the tripod.

Outside of the obvious narrative connection, Maurice Pialat is a real north star in terms of the naturalism he achieves with his child performances here.

Rivette’s use of time and space. I had a breakthrough while writing the script in regards to how Celine and Julie use candies as a talisman, which also informs the title of my film. No spoilers...

Varda’s use of color in contrast with emotional devastation within a family unit.

Martel giving true weight to childhood perspectives while not over explaining their emotional landscape. She allows us into their world without forcing adult projections onto their experiences.

A very blatant homage in one shot, with all my love to Chantal.

During production every night I would go home and journal about the day and read a chapter of Cassavetes on Cassavetes: I highly recommend this process for any first time feature director.

I watched this by chance during pre-production with my costume designer Maria Katarina, just to blow off some steam. It ended up having a huge impact on how my film ends and I shudder to think what would have happened had this last minute inspiration not found me.

One of the first movies I have memories of seeing in a theatre with my mom, having grown up on an island without a cinema for the first part of my life. It made a lasting impact on me, and thematically, the broken connection between a mother and her son feels like it has an emotional kinship with my film.

A film my dad showed me when I was a teenager which famously depicts one of the most devastating performances by a child experiencing grief.

One of the first scripts I read in full during my writing process. It gave me permission to explore screenwriting from a visceral and image based place instead of relying on exposition. There are images in this that made a direct impact on a few shots, and of course thematically its relationship to grief from both a child and adult perspective also plays a role.

I’m a huge Minnelli fan, and although the influence of him on my work is not at all evident, I hold his use of melodrama in the highest regard. Brigadoon in particular uses fantasy, catharsis and time bending plot mechanics in a way that perhaps subconsciously affected me.