Press release

San Sebastián film festival, Tecnalia and Petronor will address the influence of new technologies on the audiovisual sector

12 September 2018
  • On Sunday 23 September, the Zinemaldia & Technology seminar will be held, a meeting place for technologists, filmmakers and professionals from the film industry, where they will gain first-hand knowledge about new technological breakthroughs and opportunities generated in the fields of both creation and business.
  • Tools such as Blockchain, Virtual and Mixed Reality, Neurotechnology and Language technologies are being incorporated into the film industry, creating a different narrative and new business opportunities in the industry.
  • This morning, the director of the Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, the director of ICT of TECNALIA, Joseba Laka, and the chairman of Petronor, Emiliano López Atxurra, signed a collaboration agreement to join forces to promote this pioneering event.

San Sebastian, 12 September 2018. The audiovisual sector is constantly changing, due, among other factors, to the emergence of new technologies, tools that have been tried and tested in other areas such as the video game industry or medicine, and are now finding their field of application in film. Thus, initiatives such as Blockchain, Virtual and Mixed Reality, Neurotechnology and Language technologies are being incorporated into the film industry, creating a different narrative and new business opportunities in the audiovisual industry.

The San Sebastian International Film Festival, TECNALIA and Petronor have joined forces to launch a new event that seeks to promote the encounter between the world of cinema and innovation in ICT, in order to gain first-hand knowledge of new technological breakthroughs, their possible applications and opportunities generated in the fields of both creation and business.

The conference, called Zinemaldia & Technology, will take place on September 23 on the patio of Tabakalera (Paseo Duque de Mandas, 52, San Sebastian) and will be a meeting place for technologists, filmmakers and professionals from the film industry. It will also bring together public and private stakeholders who are making it possible to integrate technology into the sector.

This morning, the director of the Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, the director of ICT of TECNALIA, Joseba Laka, and the chairman of Petronor, Emiliano López Atxurra, presented the seminar and signed a collaboration agreement to join forces to promote this pioneering event.

Rebordinos explained that “new technologies are changing cinema, and these changes are also affecting festivals, mainly due to new electronic devices, distribution platforms and the role of television”.

For his part, Laka judged that “technology will increasingly be the differential element, both in the development of new productions and in their commercial exploitation”.

Similarly, López Atxurra stated that “Zinemaldia" is a great platform for taking cinema one step further as an industry and taking advantage of the capabilities of the Basque science and technology system, making the world of cinema a customer for the technological offer of the Basque Country”.

INAUGURAL CONFERENCE OF J. A. BAYONA

The event, which will take place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., will start with an inaugural speech by film director Juan Antonio Bayona and will feature presentations, demonstrations and a networking area on cutting-edge technologies such as: Blockchain, a decentralised database that cannot be corrupted and that will revolutionise the distribution and management of rights and permissions; virtual reality and mixed reality, which transform the traditional passive viewer into an active viewer immersed in a new experience; neuromarketing, which studies the brain's responses to different external stimuli and allows directors and screenwriters to refine scripts and scenes to achieve specific emotions in the audience; and new language technologies, which develop advanced techniques in subtitling tools and multilingual translation.

The event will end with two panels featuring guests from public institutions and private companies, who will debate on public-private collaboration and the new opportunities offered by the incorporation of technology into the world of cinema.

Tickets will be free and to come you will either have to be accredited for Zinemaldi (San Sebastian International Film Festival) or registered on the TECNALIA website (www.tecnalia.com) to receive the appropriate invitation, until the available capacity is filled. On the same link, you can access more information and the agenda for the event.  

In addition, on Tuesday 25, the Europe-Latin America Coproduction Forum will host a round table, supported by SPRI, Film Industry & Blockchain, where Iván Gutiérrez from TECNALIA and Covadonga Fernández from Blockchain Media will explain the keys to the revolution that blockchain represents for the film industry and how, in addition to changing the way films are consumed, it will help to protect intellectual property and bring about a fairer and more transparent distribution of profits thanks to smart contracts.

ABOUT THE SAN SEBASTIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Founded in 1953, the San Sebastian International Film Festival is one of the most important film events in the world. Zinemaldia is a non-specialist competitive festival with an official international competition and includes the following sections: New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi – Tabakalera, Perlak, Culinary Zinema, Nest Film Students, Zinemira and Made in Spain. It also programmes a classical and/or contemporary retrospective. And with the aim of creating a reference platform for the European and Latin American film industries, The Industry Club conducts different activities such as the Europe-Latin America Coproduction Forum and Cine en Construcción.

ABOUT TECNALIA

TECNALIA is a benchmark Research and Technological Development Centre for Europe; with 1,400 experts from 30 different nationalities, focusing on transforming technology into GDP to improve People's quality of life, by creating business opportunities for Companies.

www.tecnalia.com

ABOUT PETRONOR

Petronor was created in Bizkaia in 1968 by a group of Basque industrialists and this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is currently the largest refinery in Spain, with an average annual contribution to the Treasury of more than 700 million euros.

Located in Muskiz, Bizkaia, Petronor employs 940 staff and has induced employment of 6,200 people, in addition to making up more than 40% of the movement of the Port of Bilbao. As part of its philosophy, Petronor promotes cultural development in its environment, by sponsoring several activities in collaboration with various entities and organisations.

www.petronor.eus/es