Edmonton filmmaker Trevor Anderson’s debut feature Before I Change My Mind (pictured) will make its world premiere in competition at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland next month.

The film was selected for the Concorso Cineasti del presente competition, and is also eligible for the festival’s Swatch First Feature Award. The 75th edition of Locarno runs from Aug. 3 to 13.

Directed by Anderson and co-written by Anderson and Fish Griwkowsky, the feature is set in 1987 and follows a young, gender non-conforming student who forges a complicated relationship with the school bully.

Before I Change My Mind is produced by Katrina Beatty of Loud Whisper Productions and Alyson Richards of Outside Line Studio, with the support of Telefilm Canada, the Alberta Media Fund and Epic Pictures. Executive producers include Anderson, film editor Justin Lachance, Epic Pictures CEO Patrick Ewald and GLAAD Media Institute VP Nick Adams.

There are no sales agents or distributors attached as of press time, producers confirmed to Playback Daily.

The cast includes Vaughan Murrae, Dominic Lippa, Lacey Oake, Matthew Rankin and Shannon Blanchet.

Before I Change My Mind was one of 10 feature projects selected for the Inside Out Film Financing Forum in 2019 and was included in the annual GLAAD List in 2020, which features 10 unproduced LGBTQ+ inclusive scripts.

Anderson is no stranger to the festival circuit, bringing the narrative short Docking to Sundance in 2019. The project was selected as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2019 Canada’s Top Ten short film lineup.

Also making its world premiere at Locarno is the Miryam Charles-directed short film Au crépuscule, which will run in the Concorso Corti d’autore competition within the Pardi di domani short film section. Montreal-based Charles’ feature-length documentary Cette maison made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

Image courtesy of Loud Whisper Productions and Outside Line Studio