When Kyle Irving and Tyson Caron pitched Jacob Tierney on the idea of directing Lovesick, a story about a depressed 33-year-old who is still in love with his ex girfriend, he told them he didn’t see himself in the director’s chair on the project.

What Tierney did see, however, was himself in the lead role and Caron taking the reins to make his directorial debut.

With everyone on the same page, the project quickly gathered momentum, securing funding from Telefilm and the Manitoba Film and Music fund, attaching Jessica Paré, Ali Tataryn and Jay Baruchel to star and eOne to distribute.

Shot in Manitoba in two time blocks (one in September 2015 and January 2016), the feature, is set to make its world premiere at Whistler on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Borsos program. Irving and Caron had previously submitted the film to Whistler’s director of programming, who Irving said was a big fan of the film. Lovesick will also have a screening simultaneously at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Cineplex, with the filmmakers planning a wide theatrical release in 2017.

In terms of its target audience, Irving said the film targets an 18-to-35 year-old demographic that skews about 70% female. This, he said, has been confirmed by the social media metrics used to track the performance of the trailer, which has drawn around 250,000 views. At this stage, promotion has been handled primarily via social media, through a larger-scale campaign is planned for the new year.

Lovesick was made on a budget of less than $2 million.

Written by Caron, the film is produced by Irving through Eagle Vision, and is executive produced by Lisa Meeches (also of Eagle Vision) and Tierney. Associate producers on the project are Rebecca Gibson and Richard Duffy.