Glasgow Youth Film Festival on the hunt for new young programmers
Returning in September, GYFF are looking for talented programmers aged between 15 and 19 to help programme the festival’s tenth edition
Young cinephiles assemble! Glasgow Youth Film Festival, the pioneering annual festival that sees a group of bright teen film fans aged 15 to 19 take the lead in programming, is returning this autumn to celebrate its tenth edition and is currently on the hunt for this year’s crop of young programmers.
“Glasgow Youth Film Festival is a unique experience for any young person,” says Erin Michael, one of GYFF's young programmers from last year. “To have the opportunity to watch films you would never watch on your own, and then decide the festival programme, is amazing. It is such a great opportunity to get your foot in the industry and see how it works!”
This year’s GYFF young programmers will take part in a summer school, where they’ll learn the ropes on programming and how to put an exciting festival together by working closely with the team behind GFT and Glasgow Film Festival. Previous editions of GYFF have seen guests like John C. Reilly (Talladega Nights, Magnolia) and the cast of Channel 4's sci-fi-comedy Fresh Meat come to Glasgow, while at the 2017 edition the young team turned the iconic Glasgow venue Mackintosh Queen's Cross Church into the fictional Camp Ivanhoe for an immersive screening of Wes Anderson’s coming-of-age tale Moonrise Kingdom.
This year’s tenth edition of GYFF also coincides with Scotland’s first ever Year of Young People, a celebration of young people’s talents that hopes to create new opportunities across Scotland for them to shine. The festival proves an exciting learning opportunity for participants: according to today’s call for applicants, you’ll get the chance to see what “goes on behind the scenes at a world-leading film festival, have your say on the best cult classics and new releases to screen, and let your imagination run wild in creating innovative pop-up cinema events.”
The applications to become a GYFF young programmer for 2018 are now open – find out more at glasgowfilm.org/gyff
Maybe you’d prefer to make films rather than programme them? GYFF is also looking for the most creative young filmmakers for a special programme of shorts at this year’s festival. Any short films (under 40 min) by filmmakers between the ages of 15 and 25 are eligible. If you have a film that fits the bill, send it to gyff@glasgowfilm.org with the subject line ‘GYFF Shorts Competition’
Glasgow Youth Film Festival takes place 14-16 Sep