The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today unveiled the nominees for its 2026 HPA Awards Innovation & Technology—the evolution of its Engineering Excellence Award—recognizing exceptional contributions to entertainment technology.
The HPA Awards Innovation & Technology program honors advancements across multiple categories covering the entire production life cycle—from pre-production through distribution and audience experience.
The 2026 nominees are:
Innovation in Preproduction
- Bria AI—GenAI Attribution Technology
- RivetAI Inc.—RivetAI
- Yamdu—AI Script Breakdown and Management Add-On
Innovation in Production & Capture
- American Society of Cinematographers—Media Hash List
- Creamsource—Slyyd Lighting Control App
- Méduse Inc.—Safe Guns Phase-Synced Flash-Gun System
Innovation in VFX, Virtual Production & Animation
- Foundry—Nuke Stage
- Nerfstudio and Industrial Light & Magic—Nerfstudio
- Volinga and XGRIDS—Virtual Production Pipeline
Innovation in Post-Production
- Adobe—Generative Extend in Adobe Premiere
- Flawless—TrueSync
- Storj—Production Cloud
Innovation in Distribution & Audience Experience
- Cineverse—CINESEARCH
- SyncWords Inc.—LiveCore + Kobe Muxer
- V-Nova Studios—V-Nova PresenZ
Winners will be announced Feb. 18 at the 2026 HPA Retreat at the Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The HPA Transformative Impact Award and the HPA Tech Retreat Best in Show Award will be presented Feb. 19, at the close of the retreat.
Judging criteria for the Innovation & Technology categories include innovation, current industry impact, technical merit and adoption readiness. Judging panels were curated by experts with deep technical expertise and hands-on knowledge.
More information about each nomination is available on the HPA website.
