The Ecumenical Jury, which viewed the films of the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2020 online, awarded its prize to "Una promessa" by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio and gave a Commendation to "The Slaughterhouse" by Abbas Amini from Iran. The main prize of the festival, the International Newcomer Award, worth €25,000, was won by "My Mexican Pretzel" by Nuria Giménez Lorang (Spain 2019), who also received the Fipresci Jury Prize. Other prizes went to "Single Cycle" by Zhang Qi from the People's Republic of China (Rainer Werner Fassbinder Award) and to "Lorelei" by Sabrina Doyle (USA 2020; Audience Prize and Student Jury Prize).
The first festival in Mannheim and Heidelberg of the new team under Sascha Keilholz, after the departure of Michael Kötz in 2019, had to take place entirely in digital space according to the new Corona regulations for November 2020. Originally, physical performances were to take place in both cities in addition to the online offerings. The festival showed films in five sections: ON THE RISE is the international competition for first to third works by new authors, PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES is dedicated to innovative films by already established filmmakers, and FACING NEW CHALLENGES to works on the border between film and other arts. A retrospective with an annually changing focus - this time under the title "Le deuxième souffle" with French films of the generation following the canonical authors of the Nouvelle vague from 1968-1983 - and a children's film festival completed the programme.