The Glasgow Youth Film Festival team introduce their programme

What do young people want from the movies? Superhero flicks? Romantic vampire yarns? Young adult fiction adaptations? Cinemas have long tried to crack this code, but back in 2009 Glasgow Film struck upon a then-novel solution when they set up the Glasgow Youth Film Festival (GYFF): they asked young people themselves, making them the first festival in Europe for young people where members of the target audience were also involved at the programming stage.

Almost a decade later, and the festival is going strong. The tenth edition coincides with Scotland’s Year of Young People, and once again is curated by a group of sharp Young Programmers aged 15-19, who’ve been mentored on a year-round basis at Glasgow Film Theatre. They’re kicking this edition off in wild style with Anna and the Apocalypse, a homegrown riot of a movie that should sate both the romantics and the gorehounds out there, given that it features the unlikely combination of high school romance, teen comedy and zombie horror. If it isn’t already clear, this Scottish-set fantasy (shot just down the road from the GFT in Port Glasgow) is a complete one-off. Oh, and we forgot to mention the best part: it’s a musical.

There’s a musical note to the finale of the festival, too, with a special screening of joyful Jack Black comedy School of Rock, in which Black poses as a substitute teacher and finds himself passing his love of rock’n’roll on to some uptight preppy school kids (“I have been touched by your kids... and I'm pretty sure that I've touched them,” Black’s character tells the children's mortified parents). For those of you who’ve seen the 2003 film, you’ll remember it ends with the kids taking part in a battle of the bands competition, and the GYFF team have delightfully decided to host their own battle of the bands contest before the screening, inviting bands from local schools to enter.

That’s the alpha and omega of this year’s GYFF, but we’ve asked some members of the Young Programmers team to clue us in on what else to seek out over the festival. Here are their choices.

Young Solitude – chosen by Ben Warnock

Young Solitude

French filmmaker Claire Simon’s new feature Young Solitude is an interesting window into the minds of the younger generation. It gives a voice to the often voiceless and shines a spotlight on those who can sometimes be belittled by society. Focusing on a series of conversations between teenagers, Simon lets her subjects speak for themselves and restrains from using any stylistic flourishes that might distract from the conversations on screen, which cover a wide range of important topics such as mental health, toxic masculinity, immigration and identity.

These conversations are intimate. On-screen chats tend to take the form of one-on-one conversations, with the camera set-up like a fly on the wall, a silent third-party in the discussion simply listening to the opinions being voiced; the confidential nature of these teen interactions makes them feel even more important and illuminating.

For adults, Young Solitude serves as an insight into the thoughts and ideas of the younger generation, but perhaps more importantly, the film provides an empathetic and oftentimes relatable portrayal of life as a teenager in a world where they are often overlooked. Young Solitude might be the most important film at this year's GYFF – especially in the Year of Young People. 15 Sep, GFT, 12.30pm

Ben is 17 years old and his favourite film is Tropical Malady

Skate Kitchen – chosen by Maya Zealey

Skate Kitchen

From award-winning director Crystal Moselle, Skate Kitchen follows gnarly skateboarder Camille, who lives in the quiet suburbs of Long Island with her mum, who disapproves of her daughter’s pastime. When Camille meets and befriends a confident female skate crew, her life becomes split as she's immersed into New York City's skating scene. While she's telling her mum that she's at the library, Camille is secretly skating through the streets of the big city, where she’s also experimenting with drugs, parties and new relationships. The film sees Camille grow more comfortable with herself as she develops strong friendships with people who understand her but at the cost of the breakdown of her relationship with her mother.

Easily the best – and most unique – aspect of the film is the honest conversations we see between the girls about the less glamorous aspects of growing up as a woman in today's society. The dialogue is raw and the relationships are refreshing: it's not often that female friendships are portrayed so positively in film. The result is empowering. When Camille takes control of her own life, Crystal Moselle is telling young women to be unapologetically authentic. 15 Sep, GFT, 8.10pm

Maya is 16 years old and her favourite film is Little Miss Sunshine

Superbad – chosen by Anna Paterson

Superbad

Superbad, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and produced by comedy king Judd Apatow, turns ten this year. The film stars a baby-faced Michael Cera and Jonah Hill (and Oscar-winner Emma Stone in her film debut) as our two antiheroes who attempt to get booze to a party when nothing seems to be going their way. A surprisingly subversive teen comedy, it manages to take notes from movies like American Pie and Dazed and Confused, but creates its own path and develops two codependent characters that have to find their own feet and learn to live without each other, as for the first time in their lives they will be attending different schools.

The film oozes Apatow's style in its raunchy laughs and instant quotability, but also definitely manages to touch on something deeper and build real, relatable (to some extent) relationships and characters. Complete with a soundtrack soaked in funk, soul, classic rock and heaps of laugh-til-you're-hyperventilating moments, there is no doubt that Superbad is one of the greatest and most memorable comedies of the last decade. 14 Sep, GFT, 11pm

Anna is 16 years old and her favourite film is Do the Right Thing

The Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin – chosen by Julia Mazur

The Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin

Ten years in the works, Arwen Curry's new documentary The Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin explores the life of Le Guin and the legacy the science-fiction writer left behind after her passing earlier this year at the age of 88.

The movie features well-known authors such as Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, as well as Le Guin’s family members and friends, who share their memories of the author. The interviews are intimate and sweetly sentimental and are accompanied by spectacular cinematography, courtesy of Andrew Black. These beautifully shot interviews are skillfully intertwined with archival footage of Le Guin and charming animation by Em Cooper and Molly Schwartz.

Curry’s study of the sci-fi novelist shows how she conquered prejudice in her industry and became a “literary icon” to many. The Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin is both a wonderful introduction to Le Guin and a tribute to the author that long-term fans are sure to adore and appreciate. 16 Sep, GFT, 5.30pm

Julia is 16 years old and her favourite film is The Grand Budapest Hotel

School of Rock – Charlotte Hutton

School of Rock

Jack Black is tailor-made for the role of Dewey Finn in Richard Linklater’s early 2000s comedy classic School of Rock. Dewey is an out-of-work slacker and aspiring rock'n'roll prodigy. After being kicked out of his own band because of his stage diving antics, he finds himself unable to pay his rent. In an act of desperation, Dewey poses as a fifth grade supply teacher under the name of his flatmate, Ned Schneebly. Well under-equipped to educate pupils of the elite private school, ‘Mr S’ (the moniker Dewey chooses due to his inability to spell “Schneebly”) instead enters his class to compete in a Battle of the Bands contest to get revenge on his old band members, and sets about teaching his pupils a curriculum with lessons such as ‘rock appreciation in theory’.

Dewey forms an unlikely bond with both his pupils and with the school’s uptight head teacher Miss Mullins (played by the perennially brilliant Joan Cusack, who features in one of the film's many musical highlights with a memorable Stevie Nicks rendition). Filled with catchy one-liners, guitar solos and questionable math teaching methods, GYFF18 invites you to relive the experience of sticking it to the man, and remind yourselves that you’re not hardcore unless you live hardcore. 16 Sep, Blythswood Hall, 7.30pm

Charlotte is 17 years old and her favourite film is 10 Things I Hate About You

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GYFF takes place 14-16 Sep. The full GYFF line-up can be found at glasgowfilm.org/gyff