Kenneth Lonergan's remarkable portrait of a combative adolescent girl, scorchingly played by Anna Paquin, is complex and multifaceted. Her matter-of-fact, approach to sex – with a classmate and a teacher – is one of many elements in the narrative mix.

THIRTEEN 

Catherine Hardwicke, who went on to direct the first Twilight film, sets out the misadventures of 13-year-old girls walking on the wild side in a film co-written with one of its young stars, Nikki Reed, that plays up the cautionary aspects of the tale.

THE SPECTACULAR NOW

A shy, studious girl (Shailene Woodley)  is caught up in a relationship with an assertive, hard-drinking boy (Miles Teller) who becomes involved with her on the rebound; James Ponsoldt's feature is a thoughtful, involving and tender account of youth, love, sex and choices.

36 FILLETTE 

French writer-director Catherine Breillat​ explores, with intelligence, wit and nuance, the encounter between an inexperienced, sexually curious 14-year-old girl and a middle-aged man she meets on holiday.

YOUNG AND WILD 

Chilean filmmaker Marialy Rivas tells the story of a teenage girl raised in a conservative evangelical family, who details in a blog the conflicts and gaps between her religious upbringing and her desire for sexual experimentation.

SHOW ME LOVE

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson​'s first feature is a warmly told tale of small-town mores, a young girl's desire for another, the vagaries of reputation, the risks of friendship and the intensity and absurdity of adolescence and its petty cruelties.