San Sebastian Startup Challenge Puts AI, Immersive Tech and Green Production in Focus

AI watchdogs, virtual production tools and carbon-tracking platforms are among the technologies heading to San Sebastian this year, as the festival’s Zinemaldia Startup Challenge unveils a 10-strong lineup drawn from Spain and across Europe.

The competition, launched in 2019 to spotlight emerging tech with applications for film and the wider audiovisual business, received 68 submissions this year – its biggest field to date. The finalists will pitch on Sept. 24 during Zinemaldia & Technology.

The selection maps neatly onto some of the industry’s perennial preoccupations, from AI and virtual production to streaming reliability, location management and sustainability.

Spain’s Dymensium is using 4D Gaussian Splatting to create high-fidelity digital doubles and immersive environments, while Volum is developing real-time volumetric capture and telepresence systems. HAMO Real-Time Animation System focuses on interactive digital characters, and intoreality.tv has built a player combining conventional video with VR180 and VR360 feeds. Pixentinel, meanwhile, uses AI to identify and troubleshoot failures in live streaming.

The European contingent includes Germany’s Graphrs, a production operating system combining scheduling, staffing and equipment management; U.K.-based SuperScout, focused on location management; Finland’s THELMA, which detects unauthorized use of public figures’ image, voice and likeness; and Virtual Location Scouting, another Finnish project enabling crews to assess locations remotely. Belgium’s TheGreenShot rounds out the field with a platform for measuring and reporting productions’ environmental impact.

Separate juries will select Spanish and European winners, alongside a special mention for entrepreneurial values.

For previous winners, the benefits can extend beyond festival exposure. Anthrotek, which won Best European Project in 2025, said the award “tremendously helped” establish the company in the cinema industry, while the prize money funded specialist support around regulatory requirements for fire-protective equipment.

The company says that work subsequently helped enable a wider pivot into artificial medical models, including synthetic bodies, organs and skin, opening up a new market alongside its original audiovisual ambitions.

“Winning the festival allowed us to develop a new product that wouldn’t have existed otherwise,” Dr Raoul Peltier, founder and ceo of Anthrotek, told Variety.

The Sept. 24 program will also include a discussion on audiences and the role technology can play in reaching them.