Thanks to significant advancements in adaptive optics combined with coronagraphic observational strategies, high-contrast imaging techniques are rapidly progressing. The exploration of the sub-stellar regime via direct imaging, hampered so far by technical limitations, is starting to provide us with a powerful tool. In this talk I will present recent results obtained with SPHERE in the framework of the SHINE survey. Moreover, I will introduce a new system for coronagraphy with high-order adaptive optics that will be operating at LBT by the end of 2019: SHARKs. This system will provide coronagraphic observations from visual to NIR bands, allowing a spectral coverage that is not currently available for any other instrument in the world. Finally, I will discuss the employment of a brand-new technique that combines high-contrast imaging with high-dispersion spectroscopy, allowing in principle to reach contrasts down to 1010. In the era of ELTs, this will open the way to investigating earth-like planets in the habitable zones of their parent stars.
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