Glasgow Youth Film Festival returns for 2023

​​There is no shortage of festivals aimed at younger audiences, but what makes the Glasgow Youth Film Festival so revelatory is that its programme is assembled by young people too. This year’s GYFF programming team is made up of 18 young film fans, aged between 15 and 18. “The aim of GYFF is to involve young Glaswegians in cinema and film and to make young people feel seen and welcomed in film spaces,” the group tell me by email. Its purpose, they say, is to create a space for young film-lovers, created by young film-lovers. “We want an event that is welcoming, youth-led, and fun,” say the GYFF programmers. “Our aim is to champion films telling stories that have previously not been told as much, by strong and diverse filmmaking voices.”

The festival returns this month for its 15th edition – making it almost as old as its young programmers – and a sparkling lineup has been brought together, blending cult film and family favourites with mint-fresh work. “One of the best parts of the process was seeing all the potential and proposed films and picking the best ones,” say the programmers. “Everyone’s varied choices and suggestions made it feel pretty inclusive and extensive. We especially enjoyed the short films.” Were there any arguments when it came to the final lineup? “The voting process was tense but also extremely fun,” they say. “Everyone had their own unique presentations for their chosen films and we just generally had a lot of fun both making and presenting them!”

Proceedings kick off with Brother, a deeply moving drama about two Black siblings growing up poor in the Toronto suburbs. It sounds like there were few arguments with this pick. “We wanted to kick off with Brother because, for us, it really encapsulated what we wanted to communicate with the film festival, with it being a powerful story about young people and community while also giving a platform and representation to a story that often gets ignored.”

Closing the festival is a sci-fi classic that was released several years before any of the programming team was born: The Matrix. “We think everyone will be really excited to see The Matrix on the big screen again,” and they’re not wrong! “We also think the film is still a really important watch as its message is still prominent in today's society and the film itself was way ahead of its time in terms of themes and representation.”

Another highlight is Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson’s meta-documentary A Cat Called Dom, which explores grief and fear through the prism of creative inertia – Anderson will take part in a special Q&A after the screening. There are also plenty of Behind the Scenes events designed to introduce young people to various aspects of filmmaking, including one that sounds more nailbiting than any thriller. “We're really looking forward to Documentary in One Hour, which is an interactive event where we have invited a documentary filmmaker to make a documentary in real-time with help from the audience members.” That we have to see.

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Glasgow Youth Film Festival, Glasgow Film Theatre, 22-24 Sep; tickets for each of the films are £6, while the workshops are free to attend but places should be booked in advance due to demand