The festival's Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Michael Ballhaus, with the presentation of a retrospective of the cinematographer's films. This year the festival introduces a new Feature Debuts Competition for first and second non-documentary films, with Ballhaus presiding over the jury for Cinematographers' Debuts and Jos Stelling presiding over the jury for Directors' Debuts.

A special award for directing will be given to US director Joel Schumacher who will attend the festival and preside over the jury for the student film competition.