At this year's AnimeExpo 2008, running through July 6 in Los Angeles, Anime Expo® has teamed with Bang Zoom!® Entertainment to offer free voice acting workshops that will give participants a taste of voice acting with insiders' tips, general discussions and chances to dub with a professional audio engineer. The free summer film fest in St. Louis, Cinemania, shown outdoors on a grassy lot, starts up July 5 running through July 26, and features musicals like festival opener, An American in Paris, that have garnered 19 Oscars among them. CinemadaMare Film Festival travels across the five main regions of the south of Italy with about 150 filmmakers in tow traveling on the festival bus. At each stop which lasts a week the participants, who can be not just filmmakers but actors, set and costume designer, make-up artists, screenwriters and all cinema lovers, have the possibility of both shooting and screening movies and attend seminars. The Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York, July 8-12, is geared towards the marketing of Spanish-language alternative music. On July 9 will be LAMC Music & Film Night at Central Park Summerstage. ASCAP offers a "one-of-a-kind" experience for aspiring film and television composers during the 2008 ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis in Los Angeles, July 8 to August 1, whereby 12 selected participants will have an opportunity to record their original composition with an "A list" of Hollywood professionals.

The 16th International Animation Festival, Anima Mundi 2008, will take place in Rio de Janeiro from July 11- 20, and in São Paulo from July 23-27. It will present Competition Screenings, Special Programs, Retrospectives, International Guests and professional workshops. The 2008 Ypulse National Mashup Conference that brings together youth media and marketing professionals from brands, agencies and the non-profit sector to share best practices for reaching today's totally wired youth, is set to run July 14-15 this year in San Francisco. The Connective Panel Series presents "What You Need To Know To Succeed In The Music Business", July 20 in Decatur, a series that serves to educate indie musicians on the music business, serve as a networking opportunity, and to raise awareness and funds for the Artist Against Hunger & Poverty Program of WHY (World Hunger Year), and music related charities. Expo Comm Wireless Japan, specialized in Wireless and Mobile networks, Personal Area Networks, Internet ITS, home networks, and other wireless technologies for Japan's advanced mobile society, will be held in Tokyo, July 22-24. This year's BritDoc Festival 08 in Oxford, July 23-25, features an International Pitching Forum, featuring a panel of Commissioning Editors and film funders, from the US, Europe and the Far East, poised to invest in ambitious British feature length Documentary.

Casual Games Association hosts this year's Casual Connect Seattle, July 23-25, and is focused on the casual games industry for the general public and families, casual games are non-violent video games that are fun and easy to learn and play. At this year's Action On Film International Film Festival - known to be a producer friendly festival - Xristos Productions and Sony Creative Software are offering a new 'Guerilla Filmmaker Award' that includes a complete Sony Vegas Editing System and Cinescore Composer Package, during festival events running July 25-31 in Old Pasadena. Yale School of Management is the setting for Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders, July 27 to August 1 in New Haven, at which creative leaders in tandem with Yale's top business experts discover opportunities within the forces transforming the business social environments. The 2008 San Diego International Children's Film Festival opens on Kids Day at Comic-Con International, july 27 to August 10, at the San Diego Convention Center, presented by Comic-Con International. The festival showcases films from around the world made for children and teens, including live-action, animation and documentaries. The Third Annual Diversity Fellowship Program @ LATV Fest, taking place July 30 to August 1 in Hollywood, is a NATPE Diversity Fellowship Program now in its third year to provide a small group of emerging television and video content creators of color with the next step in their career development.

In a special request for support from the indie filmmaking and film loving community, creators of 'The Plague: Writers & Director's Cut' (http://www.actorschecklist.com/video/video_13.html), a socially relevant horror movie dealing with the subject of kids, violence and fear, are seeking public support to have their version of the film released at Sony Pictures Entertainment which published their version to DVD under the title Clive Barker's The Plague. The effort led by Director/Writer Hal Masonberg has a petition up at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/plague/signatures.html as well as names and email address of relevant Sony Pictures executives to contact on behalf of this effort at: http://www.spreadingtheplague.com/sony.html.

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, Bit Torrent, as well as on The Actor's Checklist podcast blog, a great place to get your iPhone, ipod or Apple TV download from. The Free Home Video Showcase at www.actorschecklist.com/video now serves as an archive for all past video presentations. This month on video you will see trailers and sample clips of A Natalie Paige Bentley Film, 'City of Motherly Love' (www.comlmovie.com) the story of a mother's spiral into anger and self-destruction after the shooting death of her son. Multi-media, make-up artist, performance artist Damon Zex (www.Zexart.com), deriving much of his creative expressionism from German Expressionism and Surrealism. Dance music record company from Australia, Play Lab Records (www.playlabrecords.com), featuring new single release, 'Disco, Disco'. Kentucky born Country music recording artist on Aria records, Stephen Cochran (www.stephencochran.com). The Actor's Checklist now lets you check the latest musical artists song releases on Apple's iTunes, updated on an hourly basis, at: www.actorschecklist.com/resources/itunes.php