ARAB FILM DAYS: "Boy from Heaven" is first and foremost a well-composed suspense film, but at the same time gives an exciting insight into religious environments and political lines of conflict in today's Egypt.
FILM FROM THE SOUTH: Jafar Panahi's "No Bears" is a strong film in itself, but gains even greater impact in light of the situation the now imprisoned Iranian filmmaker is in.
DEATH PENALTY: The Berlin winner There is no devil is a strong statement against Iran's state executions and a morally complex depiction of living in a totalitarian society.
DIGITAL FESTIVAL: "It is a special year", says Lasse Skagen and Åse Meyer from Film fra Sør. With the closure of the cinemas in Oslo, this year's anniversary edition of the festival will be arranged digitally.
PATIENT HUNTING: The intense and up-to-date documentary Midnight Family follows a family-owned ambulance in Mexico City, and their extreme dilemmas between lifesaving and earnings.
MODERN SLAVERY: The Thai mafia tricks or kidnaps men who end up as slave laborers on fishing boats. A female activist fights for the lives of fishermen.
GOLD PALM WINNER: Modern class divisions are strongly present in this year's Film from the South opening film Parasite, which is a bubbling and biting social satire you should not know too much about in advance.
ISRAEL: For almost fifty years, Lea Tsemel has been at the forefront of the fight for justice and compassion for those who are lost and impossible to defend.
: In Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, director Stephen Nomura Schible presents an intimate encounter with an artist and activist. I feel privileged to be let so close into his creative universe.
Christian Krönes, Florian Weigensamer: Welcome to Sodom
: The West's scrapped phones, PC screens and refrigerators become a kind of livelihood for the many who live in the world's largest landfill for electronic products, Sodom
: "Why are you a problematic pop star?" asks director Stephen Loveridge in the documentary about MIA The answers point far beyond the artist's uncompromising and at times challenging personality.
: The "cleaning helpers" of the global social media platforms live in harsh societies and in relatively disorderly conditions compared to those they clean up after.
Nora Twomey / Ali Soozandeh: The Breadwinner / Tehran Taboo
: Girls dressed as boys in the underworld of Kabul and Tehran with sex, drugs and rave music are depicted through the child's gaze in the animated films The Breadwinner and Tehran Taboo.