Finnish location-scouting project and Spain’s Pixentinel win San Sebastián startup awards
San Sebastián’s Zinemaldia Startup Challenge recognised Antti Ahokoivu’s Finnish location-scouting project and Spain’s Pixentinel on September 24, 2026.
In short
- San Sebastián’s Zinemaldia Startup Challenge recognised Antti Ahokoivu’s Finnish location-scouting project and Spain’s Pixentinel on September 24, 2026.
A Finnish tool for planning film locations and a Spanish platform for monitoring live streams won the leading European and Spanish project awards at San Sebastián’s Zinemaldia Startup Challenge on September 24, 2026.
The festival named Antti Ahokoivu’s Virtual location scouting project as Best European Project and also gave it the entrepreneurship mention. Variety identifies the Finnish venture as Gaussian Scout, previously listed under the descriptive project name.
Spain’s Pixentinel, presented by Luis Zabala, won Best Spanish Project, according to the [festival’s official results](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2026/news/1/23633/in).
The two projects address different parts of audiovisual production and distribution. The Finnish system lets members of a film crew explore locations digitally to help plan shoots. The festival describes it as a working prototype validated in a relevant environment.
Pixentinel uses an algorithmic system to monitor live streams, identify the causes of problems and respond to them. The festival says a first version is already being sold. Those descriptions indicate different stages of commercial development; the awards do not establish how widely either product has been adopted.
Source provenance: [Variety’s report](https://variety.com/2026/global/global/gaussian-scout-pixentinel-win-zinemaldia-startup-challenge-1236874175/), corroborated against the festival’s September 24, 2026 results.
