San Sebastián Film Festival: ZINEMALDIA STARTUP CHALLENGE

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Ten projects based on metaverse, AI, machine learning and augmented reality, among others, to compete in the Zinema Startup Challenge.

VERDICT: Ten projects based on metaverse, AI, machine learning and augmented reality, among others, to compete in the Zinema Startup Challenge.

The projects by Spanish startups and entrepreneurs will have a specific competition, part of ‘Spanish Screening: Financing & Tech,’ one of the initiatives of ‘Spanish Screenings XXL’ and part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).

The initiative falls within the framework of Zinemaldia & Technology, promoted by the Basque Government through the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment and SPRI.

Zinemaldia & Technoloogy, taking place on 28 September, will offer presentation of the ten projects and a round table AI.

The five finalists for the Spanish competition are Festival Infinito, a project which, through metaverse, creates an interactive virtual environment offering users a unique and participatory experience with visual content, and from any device; Union Avatars, which provides users and companies with the tools to manage their digital identities through avatars; VRMulticam, which unifies immersive audiovisual technologies and broadcasts in a single service, offering a unique experience to the viewer; and WitScript which, thanks to machine learning, creates optimised processes for sound professionals, significantly minimizing the time associated with voice-over QA/QC for audio-books and audiovisual and multimedia content in general. Finally, an entrepreneurial team from the Basque Country will present Bonzo Studios, offering an integrated motion control system, high speed camera and LED Wall for making productions of high quality and complexity with a tight budget and in a short timeframe. ¬

A number of awarded projects in the first four editions are now successfully developing their business strategy. Largo AI (2019) has clients in more than 20 countries, Filmchain (2020) has also launched its product in several territories, while Kinetix (2021) is now operating with its Beta version and has closed an important funding round. Finally, Motmo.pro (2022) is now on the market and also recently raised an investment round.