Editor

Filmfestivals.com, the online source for global film festival news and resources, this week marked its 1000th reader logging onto “A Festival Wife,” a novel by former Variety reporter Rex Weiner serialized weekly on its website since March 25, 2009.

The novel, a romantic thriller framed by the world of film markets and festivals, is illustrated by Nesta Morgan, is presented on the newly-launched Fest21 blog platform (www.fest21.com). A new chapter has appeared each week with the surprise ending to be be revealed at a special event the 2009 Cannes Film Festival (May 13 – 24). The novel may be accessed at http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/a_festival_wife

“We knew our audience is focused on the festival circuit and would enjoy discovering a fiction they know all too much in reality. The idea of unveiling the book in a Web 2.0 way felt very appropriate. We decided to publish a chapter every week culminating with a reveal of the ending at next San Lorenzo Festival…oops, I meant Cannes Film Festival this May,” said M21 Editions founder and chief Bruno Chatelin. Malo Girod de l’Ain, his partner at filmfestivals.com and fest21.com added “We have always loved staying in front of the curve in the publishing business, especially when it means going online and publishing in e-book format”

“Film festivals and film markets are full of romance and intrigue, with lots of fascinating people, and my years covering them as a reporter were the inspiration for my story,” said Rex Weiner. “M21’s Bruno Chatelin and Malo Girod de l’Ain, the experts in the film festival world, know their audience and by combining the Dickensian serial tradition with today’s innovative technology, they’ve made A Festival Wife into a word-of-web hit.”

“A Festival Wife” takes place at the fictional San Lorenzo Film Festival and in the classic tradition of the roman a clef follows a cast of fictional characters moving amidst real-life movers and shakers in the film industry. The story focuses on the regular attendees who are caught up in conflicted love stories, financial intrigues and un-buried secrets from the town’s wartime past during the festival’s last days. The novel is illustrated by Nesta Morgan, whose sketches accompany each chapter. A Festival Wife will be published as an e-book from M21 Editions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - REX WEINER
Film industry veteran Rex Weiner is a former Variety reporter who has attended Cannes for seventeen years. As head of MediaTek Consulting, he is a consultant to film industry companies as well as Hollywood correspondent for Rolling Stone Italia. His feature articles have appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, LA Times, New York Observer and The New Yorker. His original detective stories, first serialized in several publications, became the feature film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, directed by Renny Harlin for 20th Century Fox/Silver Pictures. As one of the first writers brought on board to launch the TV series Miami Vice, Weiner wrote the now classic 9th episode, “Glades.” He lives in Los Angeles and Baja California.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR - NESTA MORGAN
Nesta is a designer of art, interior and tv/film settings, who ventures out to capture the character and environment settings of cinema and literary worlds for a unique storyboard collection of festival travel sketches with pen on paper." Her sketchbook appears on fest21.com at http://www.fest21.com/en/user/nesta_morgan

ABOUT THE PUBLISHERS - FILMFESTIVALS.COM AND FEST21.COM
Since its launch in 1995, FilmFestivals.com, has become the number one portal site for festivals and film news, with 430,000 unique visitors per month. With a mission to be the premiere online entertainment destination dedicated to showcasing film festivals around the world and fostering new film and filmmaking talent, FilmFestivals.com is the official partner of the largest and most prestigious festivals including Cannes, Venice, Santa Barbara and Locarno. Subscribers to the weekly newsletter total 70,000 film industry professionals, including 40,000 in the US. The newly launched festival social network Fest21.com hosts more than 5,000 blogs including video blogs from major festivals and filmmakers in the festival circuit, and is growing at a 25% monthly rate. Both Fest21 and FilmFestivals.com are M21 Editions companies, with offices in New York and Paris.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: New York Office 212 202 4977 European Headquarters +331 72 74 71 79 Fax +331 72 74 73 79

Bruno Chatelin
bruno@m21editions.com
Malo Girod de l’Ain
malo@m21editions.com