Film Festival Junkie (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781638296805)

As an astute reporter of the film festival scene, Laszlo Kriston sheds light on the making and unmaking of Harvey Weinstein (he first heard rumors about him back in 2004); charts the rise of the festival goodie bags and the Oscar gift bags; looks back at the day during the Toronto Film Festival when the attack on the Twin Towers unfolded; chronicles the biggest scandals of Cannes when films were roundly booed; narrates the closure of the Cannes Film Festival during the 1968 student riots; looks back on the Mubarak years that served as a backdrop to the Cairo Film Festival; chronicles the biggest biddings wars-for distribution rights-that studios engaged in; examines the closing day blues (a common festival malady); muses about a pee stain on Nick Nolte's pajamas (his garment for the interview); and reveals how Bill Murray traumatized a young Scarlett Johansson on the set of Lost in Translation.

Film festivals are vanity fairs and highly competitive, ego-driven showbiz events, and Laszlo Kriston chronicles them with a healthy dose of humor - it's an often hilarious, tongue-in-cheek book.