John, a grieving scientist inadvertently rewinds time and finds himself at his very first date with his late wife, Esmé. But can he win over the woman who fell for the man that John no longer is?

In The First Time I Never Met You, director Eric Cole (Whom we’ve featured his first short “Fifty Pence” back in 2013) takes us on a heart-wrenching, time-bending journey of love and self-discovery. Following John, a scientist overcome by grief, the story unfolds as he inadvertently rewinds time to find himself reliving his first date with his late wife, Esmé. Faced with the woman he lost, John must confront not only the lingering love but also the version of himself that Esmé once fell for—raising the question of whether he can truly rekindle their connection as the man he is now.

With its blend of science fiction and tender drama, The First Time I Never Met You dives deeply into the complexities of love, loss, and the search for redemption. Cole masterfully weaves emotional depth into a storyline that explores how grief changes us and the challenge of reconciling with our past selves. This short film is yet another powerful entry in Cole’s portfolio, inviting viewers to ponder the fragile nature of time and love.

The concept of rewinding time to a pivotal moment is central to the film. What inspired you to explore this idea, and how did you decide on the first date as the key moment to revisit?

I had done some reflecting on a romance that hadn’t gone the way I had hoped, but still led to a lot of positive growth in my own life. I was finding myself sabotaging the positive memories I had of this relationship, in a subconscious and misguided attempt at moving on. The (faulty) logic was that if the pain comes from losing something good, and if I could convince myself that it hadn’t been such a good thing after all, maybe it wouldn’t hurt as much.

But by trying to convince myself of that, I was also deterring myself from keeping up with the positive life changes I had made as a result: I had begun saving for a house, learning about investing, passive income, and other financial tips that could potentially help with building and maintaining a future family. All of which were still beneficial to me whether I was in or out of that relationship, but I wasn’t necessarily seeing it that way at the time.

Again, it was all a subconscious process, and once I was able to recognise it, I was compelled to explore it through story – what if the things that we believe would make our situation better, actually make them far worse than we could imagine?

Every relationship starts with a first encounter, and having John revisit his and Esmé’s first date, knowing exactly what it is supposed to lead to, allowed us to raise the stakes for John – one wrong move could cost him the life he’s known and cherished so much.

The film delves into the bargaining stage of grief, where memories are reinterpreted. How did you approach portraying John’s internal struggle between holding onto his memories and the desire to rewrite them?

I wanted to draw a parallel with the Western world’s understanding of forward and backward motion, as it relates to representing it on a 2D plane. We write from left to right, our play and fast-forward controls are oriented to the right, whereas the rewind control is directed to the left.

So to visually represent John’s frame of mind (once he is back in time) I positioned him facing to the right for as long as he believed that negotiating with his grief (and with time) was the appropriate course of action. We then cross the 180° line and have him facing to the left once he understands how wrong he was, and that he has no control over his situation.

The First Time I Never Met You blends sci-fi and drama in a unique way. How did you strike a balance between the emotional depth of the story and the sci-fi elements, such as time manipulation?

The balance was primarily a result of budget limitations, we could just about afford to have the one sci-fi and VFX-heavy section. With that in mind, it made sense to use it as the impetus of the narrative; the incident that triggers the dramatic events that ensue.

A very early version of the concept involved additional efforts to rewind time, and more visual alterations to John’s history. Ultimately, the format and budget were the primary factors that shaped the final balance we achieved.

Time travel in film often raises ethical questions. In John’s case, is his journey back in time more about healing, or is it an attempt to rewrite a love he can no longer live up to? How do you see his motivations evolving through the story?

I think John’s misadventure with time is more of a cautionary tale. By the time that he understands the error of his ways, and gets the motivation to undo what he’s done and finally accept his grief, it is simply too late. Although he was drawn by the opportunity to relive the love story he once had, he is now doomed to never living it at all – a price much greater than the loss itself.

Visually, how did you approach the representation of time travel and the emotional transitions between past and present? What aesthetic choices helped you convey John’s emotional state?

I wanted the different time periods to have their own aesthetic and feel. The Present was blue in colour, reflecting John’s sad, dark and cold frame of mind. We also had that period of time in a 1:2.35 aspect ratio.
The Past had a much warmer colour palette with a lot of browns, and oranges, reflecting the warmth that Esmé brought to John’s life, as was contained in a 2:1 aspect ratio.
All the flashbacks, had a much more muted look, within a 14:9 aspect ratio, reminiscent of older eras of moving images.
As for the direction that time took as a result of John’s meddling, I also wanted to give it its own visual identity, by using opposite colours (as per the colour wheel) to the previously established Blues and Oranges, giving us the magenta and green hues from the last scene (but also foreshadowed throughout the film.)

The film touches on the idea of how changes outlast relationships. In what ways do you think John’s journey in this film reflects the broader human experience of coming to terms with loss and personal transformation?

Loss is inevitable, everyone one of us will experience it at some point, whether it is the loss of a job, a break-up or the loss of a loved one. These encounters and experiences would have changed us somehow: the more meaningful the relationship, the more profound the changes. In John’s case, he learns too late that the person he’s become as a result of his relationship with his Esmé (becoming a father to their daughter, Hope) is the human proof that Esmé existed. John’s inability to accept the loss is directly related to his personal transformation becoming meaningless and erased from history.

Are there any films, books, or directors that influenced your approach to blending emotional storytelling with sci-fi elements in The First Time I Never Met You? What are some of your personal favorite stories dealing with time and grief?

Ex-Machina is one of my favourite films, for the very reason that it uses a sci-fi story to explore deeply human ideas and themes. It’s the type of story that I gravitate towards the most: when the realm of possibility is pushed to the extreme, and forces characters to lay their humanity bare. It’s a great way to explore how far we would go, how much we could take, how long could we manage, etc…
A Quiet Place, Arrival, I Origins are other films that I love and turn to very often for that same reason.

Finally, can you tell which are your favorite all time short films, or some inspirational ones that you’ve seen lately?

Ben Briand’s Apricot is a short that really motivated me to start making short films (I briefly pay homage to it in The First Time I Never Met You). Spider (dir. by Nash Edgerton), Cargo (dir. by Ben Howling & Yolanda Ramke), and more recently Furieuses (dir. by Thomas Verney) and Jibaro (dir. by Jerome Denjean, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and Alberto Mielgo) are amongst some of my favourite short films. Would definitely recommend!