The 5th Annual NAS Conference was a celebration of autophagy research, boosting high scientific quality and enabling the exchange of new ideas and the formation of new, valuable connections. Warm thanks to everyone who made this conference the success it was: The organizing team around Francesco Cecconi, Matteo Bordi and Lisa Frankel, the NAS Board, the NAS web masters Behzad Khoshnood and Rubén Gómez-Sánchez, the NAS treasurer Anu Kauppinen, the NAS sponsorship team (Nikolai Engedal, Daniel Hofius, Chara Charsou, Karolina Pircs, Merve Kacal), and the Sponsors (Novo Nordisk Foundation, The Carlsberg Foundation, Danish Cancer Society, Lundbeck Foundation, The company of biologists, Traffic, CDD Press, Cells, BioNordika and Dojindo). A huge thank you also to the invited keynote speakers and all attendants!