World Copyright Summit, CineVegas Film Festival, NXNE: North by Northeast Music & Film Festival, Cinema Expo International, American Black Film Festiv

The BANFF World Television Festival, opening this year in Alberta from June 7-10, is a not-for-profit event produced by Achilles Media Ltd., an international events management company serving the television and digital media industries. Among various sessions programmed into the festival, the Broadcaster Briefings get inside information on what broadcasters from around the world want. In these open, informal sessions, international Program Executives will provide insight into their schedules, outline production priorities and biases, discuss potential partnership deals, and answer questions. The second World Copyright Summit kicks off this year with an opening night party and reception in DC, hosted by the U.S. Rights Societies and Guilds members of CISAC on June 8. For the duration of the Summit running through June 10 the shape and impact of the new creative, economic, technological and legal environment will be addressed. Beginning June 10, industry networking and career guidance group URNetworking Alliance (meetup.com/urnetworkalliance) will be part host to a playreading series in New York, and, the group is also conducting the Casting Director Workshops and the Power Lunch Series in other venues as well. A think tank like event gives shape and substance to the 2009 Lake Placid Film Forum, running June 11-13, whose programs throughout the years have provided opportunities for filmmakers, screenwriters and actors to come together to exchange and obtain information related to the creation, production and distribution of film and other electronic media.

At this year's CineVegas Film Festival, happening June 11-20 in Las Vegas, CineVegas will honor two actors, two directors and two video game design pioneers, including Jon Voight who will be given the Marquee Award, and Willem Dafoe honored with the Vanguard Actor Award. InfoComm International will host an International Reception, one of many, when it stages its annual convention in Orlando, June 13-19, which serves the professional AV communications industry worldwide. When TeatroStageFest: the Third Annual Celebration of Latino Arts and Culture opens June 15-28 in New York, it will present 19 events featuring 23 theater, dance, music, and comedy performances, family programming, workshops, artist panels, youth awards, and an all-day conference, with performances in English or Spanish. During Broadcast Asia 2009, in Singapore, solutions will be offered for broadcasters, cable and satellite operators, content providers, new media operators, vendors, IT and multimedia providers, to gather and discuss latest trends, business strategies and technology updates over a four day run starting on June 16. The DISCOP Organisation, which facilitates audiovisual content distribution and coproduction business in 87 countries located in Central, Eastern Europe, Eurasia and Africa, presents its annual convention to an audience of International suppliers of finished programs, packaged TV channels and formats; Programming, acquisitions and coproduction executives representing TV Stations, Pay-TV operators, DVD and theatrical distributors, broadband and telco operators, and others, from June 17-19 in Budapest.

North by Northeast Music & Film Festival and Conference (NXNE) is a Toronto-based conference and showcase taking place June 17-21 for new music and music-related films, where listening and mentoring sessions assist career planning for future considerations, programmed screenings of hand-selected music movies, from concert classics to the latest indie docs from Rio to Rwanda, nightly music showcases, and on June 20, Wu-Tang Clan founding member and creative engine, GZA will be interviewed by hip hop historian Fab 5 Freddy. Opening June 18-28 for its annual event, the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival features s varied offering, and such unique signature programs including the exclusive Filmmaker Retreat - hosted by the Festival's annual Guest Director - and the Spirit of Independence Award ceremony and gala. Cinema Expo International is a pan-European convention and trade show happening in Amsterdam this year, June 22-25, dedicated to the needs of the movie theatre industry where over 1,250 cinema exhibition and distribution professionals from Europe, the Middle East and Africa come to view the latest major cinema releases and extensive product reels and more. At this year's American Black Film Festival, running June 24-27 in Miami, the Festival hosts The Star Project, an international acting competition, and now in its 12th year, the HBO Short Film Competition, showcasing five short film finalists selected from hundreds, including Derrick Anthony's 'Popous Pane and the Kids He Love to Hate' starring Alfred Rutherford (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=524167566). This year Brussels Film Festival is conducted over nine days, June 27 to July 5, with open air screenings, free concerts every evening, and parties. Los Angeles based career service, Talents Connection (www.talentsconnection.com), has invited performers to the family oriented Orange County Market Place on June 28, and has announced the formation of its Roller Derby Team, Rolling Vixens, for which it is seeking sponsors (talentsconnection@yahoo.com).

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 popular video sites around the Web like MySpace, YouTube, Daily Motion, as well as on The Actor's Checklist podcast blog. Leading entertainment industry publication Back Stage has redesigned their Backstage.com website to allow for better resume and picture upload, casting and job alerts, and much more. Follow the posting of the news summary on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/actorschecklist  This month on the video news summary you will again see a dynamic array of artists in performance of film and music. Last month's video news summary showcase featured Russian film music composer, Edgar Arens and Dutch video editor, State 209, who have produced graphic game video 'Deadly Pursuit.' Freelance bass guitarist of the RagaZZ style, Jayen Varma, considered one of the fastest bass guitarist in the world. Excerpts from the web series of comedy performer Maija DiGiorgio whose documentary feature, 'Hollywood Outlaw', is playing out in episodes over the Web. These videos are now available on the Free Home Video Showcase which now serves as an archive for all past video presentations but without the audio news narration.