In the opening title card, the film is dedicated to "Eliza, Francis, Joel and Luca". This refers to Eliza Hittman, Francis Lee, Joel Edgerton and Luca Guadagnino, who directed Beach Rats (2017), God's Own Country (2017), Boy Erased (2018) and Call Me by Your Name (2017), which are all gay coming-of-age films.
Xavier Dolan has stated that Maxime's facial birthmark represents the sexual death for gay people when they have a physical flaw as he was always bullied for being too small.