It's the first feature-length movie by multi-talented New York singer, performer, multimedia-artist and filmmaker Laurie Anderson. Heart of a Dog, now in cinemas in the Netherlands, is a light-hearted, impressionistic meditation on love and death. An ode to the loss, in recent years, of her mother, husband Lou Reed, and dog Lolabelle.

In the sober character study Mammal, the introvert Margaret takes a street kid under her wing. Although not stated in so many words, for the viewer the link between this boy and the son Margaret left with her ex from an early age is clear. Filmmaker Rebecca Daly and the setting are Irish, but there are quite a few Dutch names mentioned on the end credits, while the film was mainly shot in Luxembourg.

Belgian director Guillaume Senez found two intense young actors for his realistic feature debut, which deals with teenage pregnancy. "This time, we wanted to choose the father's perspective." Keeper has been screening in cinemas in the Netherlands since 7 April.

El abrazo de la serpiente is the first film in Colombian history to be awarded an Oscar nomination. At IFFR, the film picked up the Hubert Bals Fund Dioraphte Award, the prize for the Hubert Bals Fund-backed film scoring highest with the festival audience. Flemish lead actor Jan Bijvoet – familiar to audiences here as the title character in Alex van Warmerdam's Borgman – calls the film, shot in the Amazon rainforest, "a gift". The film will be in Dutch cinemas from 31 March 2016.