LOS ANGELES—The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) concluded the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat in mid-February with more than 800 industry leaders, technologists, creatives and executives on hand to attend more than 40 curated sessions.

A defining moment of the week was the presentation of the 2026 HPA Awards Innovation & Technology honors, the expanded evolution of the HPA Engineering Excellence Award.

The 2026 HPA Awards Innovation & Technology category winners are:

• Innovation in Pre-Production: Bria, GenAI Attribution Technology.
• Innovation in Production & Capture: Creamsource, Slyyd Lighting Control App.
• Innovation in VFX, Virtual Production & Animation: Nerfstudio and Industrial Light & Magic, Nerfstudio.
• Innovation in Post-Production: Flawless, TrueSync.
• Innovation in Distribution & Audience Experience: SyncWords, LiveCore + Kobe Muxer.

In addition to the category honors, HPA presented two special recognitions reflecting long-term industry impact and peer-selected excellence during the retreat.

The HPA Transformative Impact Award, recognizing the submission with the greatest potential to reshape the professional media content ecosystem, was awarded to Bria AI — GenAI Attribution Technology. The honor recognizes breakthrough innovation signaling a meaningful shift in how content is created, managed and delivered.

The HPA Tech Retreat Best in Show Award, selected by attendees as the most innovative technology exhibited in the Innovation Zone, was presented to Global Objects.

“I am deeply energized by the success of the 2026 HPA Awards Innovation & Technology honors,” said Renard Jenkins, president of the Hollywood Professional Association. “These honors reflect more than technical achievement. They represent the collaborative spirit and creative ingenuity that propel our industry forward. By recognizing the individuals and teams redefining how stories are imagined, crafted and experienced, HPA continues to champion progress across our global creative community.”

The 2027 HPA Tech Retreat will take place Feb. 14–18, 2027, at the La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, Calif.

For more information, see James O’Neal’s TVTech story: “2026 HPA Tech Retreat Explores Latest Media Production Tools/Technologies.”

More information is available on the HPA website.

LOS ANGELES—The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the programming details for the HPA Tech Retreat Supersession. 

At the 2024 HPA Tech Retreat, the Supersession will go behind the scenes with two groups of filmmakers as they create animated shorts that illustrate differing approaches: one utilizing advanced technologies and one AI-focused. As part of the extensive five-day agenda, the Supersession is designed to be a major highlight of the event, blending the new frontier of creativity and technology.

Celebrating its 29th year, the 2024 HPA Tech Retreat will take place from February 18 to 22, 2024, hosted at the Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, California. Registration is currently open at HPATechRetreat.com, with the HPA Tech Retreat Supersession taking place on Tuesday, February 20, 2024.

This year’s AI-focused Supersession follows on previous years, which included building two state-of-the-art 3D theaters for a look at the making of Avatar: The Way of Water in 2023, the construction of three virtual production volumes in 2022 and six short films that were produced live but remotely in the cloud from around the world in 2021.

Seth Hallen, HPA President and this year’s head of the HPA Tech Retreat Programming Committee explained that “At the HPA Supersession, we love exploring how technology plays a key role in unleashing human creativity. We do this by putting aside the slide shows and panel discussions, and enabling filmmakers to show us how they work their magic. I can’t wait for a day filled with insightful live demonstrations from outstanding filmmakers as they unpack their approaches to storytelling.” Of the day’s sessions, he said, “Going behind the scenes on “Ashen” will give us an exciting look at the latest mainstream but cutting edge techniques as working filmmakers use them. The second half of the day will showcase the arrival of new game-changing AI technologies. In the midst of the noise and interest of AI, it takes the precision and focus of the HPA Tech Retreat’s Supersession to demystify how these tools can be used, and how they might continue to evolve, laying the groundwork for a fact-based exploration of AI’s impact on the creative landscape. This day is going to level-up yet again at the incredible HPA Tech Retreat.”

The 2024 Supersession will focus on real-world evolution in animation content creation, aiming to unpack and explore the realm of possibilities. In two sessions, filmmakers take different approaches to creating content: the most advanced filmmaking techniques for animation in the morning, and an AI filmmaking session in the afternoon. Both will bring attendees into the process. 

Tuesday — February 20, 2024

The two collaborative sessions are led by a stellar lineup of artists and technologists, all under the expert guidance of Joachim Zell (JZ), Jack Wenzinger and James Blevins. The entire Supersession experience is emceed by Zell, who will help create an enthralling Supersession showcasing both projects.

Creating “Ashen,” An Original Animated Short

The morning kicks off with an exploration of the creation of the original animated short, “Ashen,” crafted by a global team. The session will cover various facets of the creative process and illuminate the most modern ways of creating animation. Topics of discussion include: 

• The Idea, The Script: Following a script through completion
• The Workflow
• PreVis and Tech Viz
• Concept Art, Look Book, and Beat Sheet
• Audio Recording, ADR, Audio Mix
• 3D Animation
• Virtual Camera 
• Post Production in the Cloud
• Editing Composition
• Sound Composition
• Epic Games 
• Color Timing Animation 
• Producing an Animation 

Directed by Ruby Bell, and produced by Bell, Michelle Chan, Giorgia Starawuk, and executive produced by Mandy Walker ACS, ASC, “Ashen” is the product of contributions from numerous contributors and companies. Those include Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Perforce Helix Core system, AWS Post Production and Color Correction Cloud, AJA, Avid Editorial, Autodesk - Shot Grid, Big Bang Sound Design, Exceptional Minds, Keywords Studios, Moxion, Mriya Productions (Team Ukraine), Noitom Studios, Pow Wow Studios, Unreal Engine and Westwind Media.

Presenters will include Ruby Bell, Filmmaker; Jayme Wilkinson, VFX Supervisor; Shaman Marya, Producer & Virtual Production Supervisor; Giorgia Stawaruk, Producer; Iris Wu, Audio Consultant; Jay Torta, Cinematographer; Barry Goch, editor; Dean Lyon, VFX Consultant; Katrina King, AWS; Isabella S. Lauf, Composer; Natasha Leonett, colorist; and Michelle Chan, Producer. 

Deconstructing An AI created Animated Short 

The afternoon session features another set of groundbreaking filmmakers and technologists who explore the use of Generative AI in the visual storytelling process. Attendees will be guided through some of the latest AI technologies as a short animated film is completed. The topics include: 

• Corridor Crew: Discussion and Demonstration of 3 types of AI-enabled animation  
• AI Compositing  
• Theoretically Media: Demo of other AI video Tools
• Custom Training and Custom Models 
• AI Pipeline and Workflow 
• Curious Refuge: The World’s First Home for AI Storytellers  
• AI Music and Sound  

Speakers include Niko Pueringer, Corridor Crew; Tim Simmons, Theoretically Media; Caleb and Shelby Ward, Curious Refuge; and Jack Wenzinger, Amazon Web Services. 

Both projects will be screened. The day concludes with a panel discussion featuring teams from both the morning and afternoon sessions.

The HPA Tech Retreat, recognized for its comprehensive coverage of critical topics in the media creation industry, includes TR-X on Monday, focused on "Extreme Production," and the main conference program on Wednesday and Thursday, featuring compelling topics ranging from AI to archive digitization. The HPA Tech Retreat is also known for its world-class networking opportunities. The Innovation Zone, a dedicated environment where the latest in products and technologies are demonstrated by experts, takes place Monday-Wednesday. 

The event maintains capped attendance, historically selling out quickly, thus early registration is recommended and can be purchased at HPATechRetreat.com.

Boston, MA — February 7, 2019 - EditShare, a technology leader in intelligent shared storage, QC and media management solutions, today announced that it will showcase its automated quality control solution, QScan and its IMF capabilities at the HPA Tech Retreat Innovation Zone from February 11-15, 2019 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in California.

Powered by the award-winning QUALES AQC engine, QScan employs a unique single-pass analysis process which can be applied at any point during the workflow, making it an ideal automated quality control solution for media professionals across production, post-production and distribution. QScan comes pre-loaded with AQC templates such as IMF testing and AS-11 presets. In addition to support for IMF packages, all QScan models carry compliance certification from the DPP and AMWA which includes support for PSE testing.

IMF for broadcast and online makes it possible to automate the content supply chain, eliminate the unnecessary creation of multiple versions, enable workflow efficiencies and reduce QC and archive storage requirements while maintaining the quality of the original asset. EditShare’s QScan facilitates modern IMF workflows, supporting multiple file formats for the master, different versions and edits, different resolutions and frame rates, aspect ratios, languages, and ultimately distribution to many destinations. It automatically detects the existence of the corresponding XML files (CPL, PKL, OPL, AssetMap, Volume Index) reading the contents and providing information about the structure of the entire IMF package (IMPs) to ensure compliance for delivery saving facilities an enormous amount of time while opening doors to new avenues of revenue.

To learn more about the business benefits of IMF read EditShare’s Howard Twine's paper on the Business Benefits of IMF, co-developed with the DPP at qscan.editshare.com/technical/imf-delivery

For more information on QScan, please visit qscan.editshare.com.

About EditShare

EditShare is a technology leader in networked shared storage and tapeless, end-to-end workflow solutions for the post-production, TV and film industries. Our groundbreaking products improve efficiency and workflow collaboration every step of the way. They include video capture and playout servers, high-performance EFS central shared storage, AQC, archiving and backup software, media asset management, and Lightworks – the world’s first three-platform (Windows/OS X/Linux) professional non-linear video editing application.

©2019 EditShare LLC. All rights reserved. EditShare® is a registered trademark of EditShare.

Press Contact

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Zazil Media Group

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BURBANK—The Hollywood Professionals Association is seeking proposals for the main program and breakfast roundtables at the 2019 HPA Tech Retreat, Feb. 13-15, 2019, at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, Ca. The event draws post production, digital FX professionals and content creations professionals from around the world to network and learn about industry innovations.

The main program presentations are set for Wednesday-Friday. These presentations are strictly reserved for marketing-free content. Presentations can consist of anything related to moving images and associated sounds, including AR, VR, content protection, dynamic range, enhanced cinema, frame rate, loss recovery, and more. Presentation proposals should one or two sentences and must come from the proposed presenter. Typical presentations last for 30 minutes, including set-up and Q&A. The deadline to submit main program proposals is COB, Friday, Oct 26.

Breakfast roundtables also take place Wednesday-Friday, beginning at 7:30 AM. Unlike the main program, moderator-led breakfast roundtables can include marketing information. There is no vetting process for breakfast roundtables, but all moderators must be registered for the retreat. Proposals for breakfast roundtables must be submitted by their proposed moderators and once the maximum number of tables is reached (32 per day), no more can be accepted. Tables are provided on a first come, first serve basis.

The HPA Tech Retreat normally sells out and slots for the main and breakfast programs fill up quickly, according to the organization. “It is a ‘big picture’ event with an emphasis on real world application of imagination,” said Seth Hallen, HPA president.

Proposals can be sent to Mark Schubin at TVMark@EarthLink.net or Media.Mark.Schubin@GMail.com by the Oct.r 26 deadline.

For registration information, check the HPA website.