First-ever Awards for Paranormal Content Creators Announces Podcast Nominee and Filmmaker Finalists

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The ParaPod Awards Spotlight the Podcasters, Filmmakers, and Television Shows That Often Go Unnoticed During Awards Season on Saturday, April 1, at the Hyatt Regency Valencia

Santa Clarita, California – March 7, 2023 – The upcoming ParaPod Festival, taking place Friday, March 31 through Saturday, April 1, 2023, in Santa Clarita, California, is the first of its kind to not only celebrate all things paranormal in one place but to honor the influencers and content creators who work in the paranormal genre. The two-day event will wrap up with a live awards ceremony – the ParaPod Awards – with awards given to podcasts and their hosts, documentary filmmakers, and television shows and personalities.

“As a content producer and host myself, being able to create a platform to celebrate the paranormal genre and those content creators who are working in it has been a long-time goal,” says ParaPod founder Tony Sweet. “Influencers, podcasters, documentary filmmakers, television producers, and hosts who dare to cover topics like UFOs or Bigfoot often get overlooked by mainstream awards shows, and I want to change that.”

Podcasters whose content covered the paranormal were asked to submit their work in various categories via the ParaPod Festival website. A committee of listeners rated the podcasts in their selected categories to create a list of finalists. The finalist podcasts were then listened to and rated by a second committee to determine the nominees. The podcast nominees for the ParaPod Awards are:

In the category of Best UFO Podcast:

  • Strange Darkness Radio
  • UFO Chronicles Podcast
  • Paranormal Almanac

In the category of Best True Crime Podcast:

  • Hollyweird Paranormal
  • Heart Starts Pounding
  • Ghost Town

In the category of Best Ghost Podcast:

  • Ghost Town
  • Mega Strange
  • The Haunted Happy Hour

In the category of Best Spiritual/Psychic Podcast:

  • The Witching Hour
  • The Colby Rebel Show
  • Paranormal Almanac

In the category of Best Podcast Host(s):

  • Jason Horton & Rebecca Leib/li>
  • Derrick Acosta & Johnny Weiss
  • Kaelyn Moore

In the category of Podcast of the Year:

  • Heart Starts Pounding
  • Ghost Town
  • Mega Strange

Documentary filmmakers worldwide submitted their short-form and feature-length paranormal films via FilmFreeway.com to be viewed and rated by a viewing committee, who determined which films would be official selections. Then, a panel of judges rated the films to determine the finalists in each category for the ParaPod Awards.

The finalists for Best Short Paranormal Documentary are:

  • (After)Life, directed by Ben Goldman (USA)
  • Close Encounters Interview with Preston Dennett, directed by Matt Schwartz (USA)
  • The Conspiratologist, directed by Stephen Bradford and Justin Jay Jones (USA)

The finalists for Best Feature Paranormal Documentary are:

  • Contemplation: On the Psychedelic Experience, directed by Julian Austin Palmer (AUS)
  • Accidental Truth – UFO Revelations, directed by Ron James (USA)
  • Black Knight Satellite: Beyond the Signal, directed by Melissa Tittl (USA)

The ParaPod Festival social media team also launched an online series of audience polls to determine the nominees and winners of the ParaPod Audience Favorites Awards for mainstream, paranormal television series. The nominees for the ParaPod Awards are:

In the category of Best UFO Series:

  • A Tear in the Sky
  • Ancient Aliens
  • Truth Declassified

In the category of Best Non-fiction Ghost Series:

  • Ghost Adventures
  • Destination Fear
  • Kindred Spirits

In the category of Best Cryptid Investigation Series:

  • The UnXplained
  • Mountain Monsters
  • Destination Truth

In the category of Best TV Psychic Medium:

  • Chip Coffey
  • Tyler Henry
  • Patti Negri

In the category of Best Paranormal Host:

  • Ben Hansen
  • Zak Bagans
  • Giorgio Tsoukalos

The content of podcast nominees and film festival finalists can be viewed online at www.parapodfestival.com in the Podcast Awards Listening Room and the Film Festival Screening Room.

The winners will all receive a handsome, custom-created ParaPod Award. Podcast and filmmaker winners will be offered a non-exclusive contract to air their content on the ParaPod TV Roku channel. The Best Feature Paranormal Documentary winner will also receive a sponsored one-year subscription to WriterDuet Pro.

In addition to the awards mentioned above, the festival will present a Media Legend Award to Emmy and Peabody-award-winning investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe, who has covered UFO and disclosure topics for over forty years and has become one of the most recognized names in the paranormal genre. Best-selling author and producer Billy Carson is receiving the Pioneer Award for his work in bringing paranormal content into the mainstream.

The ParaPod Awards will begin after the City of Santa Clarita-sponsored ParaPod Festival events on Saturday, April 1, at 7:00 PM at the Hyatt Regency Valencia. The awards ceremony is only open to speakers, invited guests, and VIP ticket holders. VIP Weekend passes are available online at www.parapodfestival.com.

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PARAPOD FESTIVAL BRINGS CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS PARANORMAL TO SANTA CLARITA MARCH 31 AND APRIL 1

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The Weekend’s Events Include Paranormal Podcast Awards, Expert Lectures, Metaphysical Workshops, Native American Dance, Ghost Town Tour, Film Screenings, Stargazing

(February 7, 2023 – Santa Clarita, CA) What is paranormal? According to the Oxford dictionary, the paranormal is defined as events or phenomena beyond the scope of common scientific understanding. It is a broad genre encompassing everything from UFOs and aliens to ghosts and hauntings, Bigfoot and other cryptids to psychics, and spiritual studies to ancient mysteries. Paranormal topics lack a definite demographic, as men and women of all ages across all socioeconomic grids show interest in these strange and unusual subjects.

Parapod Festival is excited to bring a two-day celebration of the paranormal to Santa Clarita on March 31 and April 1, with events at Santa Clarita’s Mentryville Park and the Hyatt Regency Valencia.

A surprisingly vast number of YouTube channels, TikTok and Instagram accounts, and websites are devoted to the paranormal genre. The amount of content available is astounding, from documentaries to web series to podcasts. No one knows this more than festival director Tony Sweet, whose paranormal video podcast Truth Be Told Paranormal has been in the top 5% of podcasts worldwide for the past decade.

“Although paranormal content is abundant with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of views, we never really see these creators –podcasters, investigators, filmmakers– being honored,” states Sweet. “That is why I wanted to develop a platform where all forms of paranormal content could be celebrated.”

Tony Sweet’s Parapod Festival will take place Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, 2023, in the Santa Clarita Valley, just North of Los Angeles, featuring the one-of-a-kind ParaPod Awards Ceremony to honor podcasters and other paranormal content creators as well as the FilmFreeway Gold film festival for paranormal documentaries.

On Friday the festivities will begin with the daytime film festival screenings of paranormal documentary feature finalists in the Mentryville School House, sponsored by WriterDuet; evening activities include a tour of the haunted Mentryville Mansion with white witch and medium Patti Negri (Ghost Adventures) and spirit circle and star gazing led by Ben Hansen (Fact or Faked Paranormal Files) .

Saturday will be a full day at the Hyatt Regency Valencia in Santa Clarita, featuring expert lectures, workshops, and activities, including Native American ceremonial dance, a seance, meditation, sound bath, breathwork, and shamanism. The vendor marketplace, with crystals, books, tarot cards and other collectibles, is also available for shopping on Saturday. The festival’s ParaPod Awards, celebrating all genres of paranormal podcasts and pioneers in the field of paranormal studies, will close out the event on Saturday evening.

Former Santa Clarita mayor and city council member Marsha McLean will officiate the ribbon-cutting for the grand opening of ParaPod Fest, presenting certificates from the city to all event speakers.

The master of ceremonies for the ParaPod Festival will be Jimmy Church, host of the popular Fade to Black podcast. Best-selling author, research scientist, producer, and entrepreneurial impresario Billy Carson (4biddenknowledge with Billy Carson) will receive the festival’s Pioneer Award, and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe (Ancient Aliens, Truth Hunter) will be receiving the festival’s Media Legend Award.

Sweet has drawn a roster of internationally recognized paranormal experts for the conference, including ancient Egypt theorist and geologist Dr. Robert M. Schoch (Ancient Aliens), white witch Patti Negri (Ghost Adventures), Ben Hansen (Fact or Faked Paranormal Files), author and great-great-grandson of Hunkpapa Lakota Chief Sitting Bull Ernie Lapointe, celebrity psychic Char Margolis (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Ronny LeBlanc (Expedition Bigfoot), psychic crime solvers Colby Rebel and Jennifer Shaffer, numerologist Glynis McCants, vampire impresario Father Sebastian, documentarian Caroline Corey, author Craig Campobasso, radio host and spiritualist Sheena Metal, breathwork specialist Bryant Wood (The Circle), social media influencers Jason Horton and Rebecca Leib (Ghost Town podcast), and host of Heart Starts Pounding podcast Kaelyn Moore. More details at https://parapodfestival.com/schedule

“My goal is to spotlight the content creators working in the non-fiction paranormal genre,” says Sweet. “It is a dream come true to give awards to podcasters, filmmakers and investigators who continue to move the paranormal genre closer to the mainstream.”

Tickets to ParaPod Festival start at $25 for individual events at Mentryville; Saturday’s General Admission is $35, and the VIP Weekend Pass includes all events on both days for $175. Parking at both locations is free. For more information about the festival and to purchase tickets, please visit www.parapodfestival.com.

Documentary and short films for the film festival awards can be submitted online via FilmFreeway through February 24, 2023. Podcasts can be submitted for the podcast awards via the secure link on the festival website.

Sponsors and Vendor spots are available; contact info@parapodfestival.com

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Contact in the Desert UFO Conference Brings Leading Experts in Science and the Future Together For Amazing Weekend of Discovery

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Will 2020 Be a Year of Perfect UFO Sightings?

Indian Wells, CA – March 5, 2020 – On the heels of NASA tracking an unidentified flying object (UFO) for over three hours in their live feed on February 21, comes the 8th Annual Contact in the Desert event, an epic adventure weekend into the science of UFOs, communication with non-human intelligence, ancient astronauts, human origins, crop circles, military sightings, government disclosure, artificial intelligence, downed craft technology, the evolution of consciousness, forbidden archaeology, cosmic teachings, contact experiences, interplanetary living and much more, will take place May 29 to June 1, now in its third year at the Indian Wells Resort & Spa.

The theme for 2020 is “Science and the Future,” and the event will host the most comprehensive group of 70 experts, scientists, researchers and military insiders from throughout the world including Coast2Coast radio host George Noory; the esteemed Honorable Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Minister of Defense (1963-67), noted former British Government Ministry of Defense researcher Nick Pope, UFO openness icon John Lear, plus Dr. Steven Greer, Linda Moulton-Howe, Mary Rodwell, Richard Dolan, Daniel Sheehan, Dr. Michael Salla, Rizwan Virk, Deep Prasad and many, many more!

Contact in the Desert is more than just a conference. This epic weekend event is a gateway through which attendees can have up-close access to the largest group of the most fascinating speakers assembled in the UFO field, from the FBI, NASA, military, and government officials, to ancient alien researchers and scientists, as well as archeologists, astronomers, and cosmologists, all under one roof.

For early attendee arrivals, the event starts off on Thursday May 28 with a tour to explore the beauty of noted Joshua Tree area UFO sighting locations Giant Rock and Crystal Hill. That evening is an Attendees Meet & Greet to get to know each other before the conference officially begins. This year Contact in the Desert includes over 67 lectures, 56 workshops, 8 panels, 3 “Conversations with,” 12 intensives, 3 CE5 fieldwork experiences, and live podcast tapings, as well as a Speakers’ Meet & Greet Event, the always sold out George Noory Luncheon, the CITD Speakers’ Award Dinner, after which guests will enjoy a table round robin with many of the speakers, a Cosmic Cafe Gathering, Cinema Under the Stars and the popular Night Vision Goggle Experience to view the galaxy and any visiting UFOs. Truly at Contact in the Desert, there is something for everyone!

The speakers and subjects this year will be astounding! Some of the event highlights include:

  • Lucy Pringle, an authority on crop circles, relating the latest images to an Earth intelligence as the cause of this phenomena.
  • Neurobiologist, computational neurobiologist, chemist, and pharmacologist Dr. Andrew Gallimore will share his cutting-edge research in the use of DMT to communicate with non-human intelligence.
  • MIT computer scientist Rizwan Virk will share his Simulation Hypothesis, with evidence that our physical reality is part of a matrix – similar to the film The Matrix.
  • A celebration the 40th Anniversary of the Rendlesham Forest incident joined by eyewitness John Burroughs, alongside Lt. Col. Charles Halt and Nick Pope.
  • Introduction to the eyewitnesses of the USS Nimitz Event who are engaged with the UAP Expedition Group researching the continual sightings of UFO’s along the coast of California.
  • Uncovering the mysteries of the pyramids and evidence for an archive under the Sphinx, with Dr. Manu Seyfzadeh, and guarded secrets of sacred sites with Brad Olson, Maria Wheatley, Freddy Silva and others.
  • Exploring the physics of paranormal phenomena with Dr. Michael Dennin.
  • Fulbright professor Dr. Bruce Solheim will talk about the worldwide-growth in alien abductions and its relationship to PTSD.
  • Ancient Aliens host Jason Martell will be discussing aliens and artificial intelligence as a mode for communication
  • Brooks Agnew, John Desouza, Dr. Diana Pasulka, David Adair, Dr. Michael Salla, and others will talk about space based manufacturing, back-engineering, the newly founded Space Force, Helium Three, and asteroid mining as the future of energy on Earth.
  • Deep Prasad, a 23-year-old Silicon Valley prodigy, considered the next Einstein, will discuss our future integration with technologically advanced non-human species.
  • Russell Targ will share the History of Remote Viewing and its techniques alongside Stephan Schwartz, Simeon Hein and Paul Smith.

Close to 100 people attending the annual Contact in the Desert event in 2016 witnessed several UFOs at close range. Luckily, a documentary film crew captured the incident. Reports and video of the sighting were covered in the Daily Express, Coast to Coast AM, and other outlets. Also in 2016, in Indian Wells, the conference’ new home, dozens of bright star-like orbs moving together rapidly across the sky, were observed on July 23. Similar occurrences were documented in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Will there be a sighting in Indian Wells for the event’s 8th year?

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