Delray Beach Film Festival, Global Sound Conference, Pangea Day, Cannes Film Festival, Drama Desk A

Digital Hollywood Spring '08 celebrates new talent in the "New Social Digital Media Landscape," when it meets May 5-8 in Hollywood, holding events like the VIP opening day dinner hosted by Tim Chang, featuring  Damon Wayans, Tyrese Gibson, and Chuck D, and a poolside reception hosted by Microsoft Media Center. A new award takes shape as Deutsche Telekom and fmx 08 join forces to honor new concepts, cutting edge developments and forward thinkers, shaping the future of digital entertainment, through the "fmx 08 - Deutsche Telekom Digital Entertainment Awards" to be presented May 5-8 at the 13th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Games, and Digital Media in Stuttgart. Delray Beach Film Festival makes its third annual start from May 6-11, offering independent short and feature-length films, such as Stella Oliveros'  biographic retelling of events in her life in Pretty In Red (May 9 at 4 pm), and documentaries, panels and workshops, concerts, screenwriter and filmmaker contests, actors, and parties, all taking place in the Delray Beach village set by the sea. The Blues Foundation presents its 29th Blues Music Awards May 8 in Tunica. The event brings together blues performers, industry representatives and fans from all over the world to celebrate the best in blues recordings and performances from the previous year. The Global Sound Conference, May 9-12 in Marina del Rey, brings together a lineup of doctors, scientists, musicians, and media visionaries from the music, film and television industries, pioneers in the areas of Music Therapy and Ethnomusicology, all exploring the ways that sound affects our lives, and to address how this knowledge can create harmony in our world.

Pangea Day plans to use the power of film to bring the world a little closer together. Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, locations in Cairo, Kigall, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of films, live music, and speakers, to be broadcast in seven languages worldwide through the Internet, television, and mobile phones. One way to locate a Pangea Day event in your area is checking a Google map specially set up for this occasion. The Indie Film Jam once again screens selected films in the heart of Downtown Orlando during the Florida Music Festival 2008 weekend, May 14-17, offering independent filmmakers networking opportunities as well as industry panels designed for educating, enlightening and gaining insight into the world of filmmaking. It's well known that the Cannes Film Festival, founded in 1939, is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals held annually in the resort town of Cannes - this year from May 14-25- in the south of France. Fairly new to the format, the Cannes Short Film Corner, presents films from all over the world, which, for the most part have not yet been released, such as Parisian director Vince Bosco, and the world premier screening his latest film, LYA (www.myspace.com/lyalefilm). Meeting in New York, May 16-18, the sixth annual Broadway Sound Master Classes (BSMC) provides attendees with an in-depth exploration of the current trends in Broadway theatre sound design and reinforcement -- from the artistic process to new technology. Sound designer Abe Jacob leads a faculty of sound professionals covering topics such as theatrical sound design, optimization and reinforcement, working with digital audio consoles, and more. Quite closely related to the BSMC, the 2008 NYU/ASCAP Foundation Film Scoring Workshop in Memory of Buddy Baker, happens in an adjacent venue, May 16-23.

During the Fifteenth Annual Hollywood Filmmaker Conference, Power Pitchfest is a major component to the conference, that will happen in Los Angeles, where you have an opportunity to sell your script or book to buyers; and/or submit your script or short to agents and managers in attendance. Reba McEntire returns to host the 43rd annual Academy of Country Music Awards that will be broadcast live from Las Vegas on May 18. The organization of theater critics, writers and editors honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre, including Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and not-for-profit theater, with the annual Drama Desk Awards, happening on May 18 in New York. Content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, enterprise corporations, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, educators and others are expected to attend Streaming Media East, May 20-21 in New York, to see and hear the latest online video technology, as well as, to discuss the business models that are coming of age. Actress Charlize Theron, director Stuart Townsend, and other special guests are expected to attend Seattle International Film Festival's opening night with the premiere of "Battle in Seattle," a dramatization of the events when Seattle was host to the WTO conference, putting the SIFF into gear for a May 22 opening, continuing to June 15. The 12th Annual Durango Songwriters Expo, co-sponsored by BMI, is a blend of music business seminars and workshops, song listening/critique sessions, live songwriter showcases, and a live hit-writer concert to close the event. It's also notoriously known to limit its registration to 200 attendees, seeking to amplify its importance as a vigorous networking and relationship-building opportunity.

The above events are only a sample of what is fully listed. Complete details are on the "Media, Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry News and Events" page. Video and podcast versions of this news summary are also available at most popular video sites around the Web like MySpace, YouTube, Bit Torrent, as well as on The Actor's Checklist video blog & podcast directory a great place to get your iPhone, ipod or Apple TV download from. The Free Home Video Showcase serves as an archive for all past video presentations. This month on video you will see trailers and sample clips of Ghanian hip hop recording artist, mixing reggae and rap, Akwabazi Filanzy (www.myspace.com/akwabazi). Parisian based actor, filmmaker and musician who will be featured in the Cannes Short Film Corner, Vince Bosco (www.myspace.com/vincebosco), with the world premiere of LYA. Winner for the Best Foreign Film in the Miami Underground Film Festival, 'Marta's Sex Tape,' from director Anthony Rivero Stabley. The Actor's Checklist now lets you check the latest musical artists song releases on Apple's iTunes, updated on an hourly basis.