Today, the fourth and final day of the festival, included an awards ceremony. I'd been looking forward to this ceremony since I wanted to see if my favorite short won (it did; it was The Second Coming by writer/director/producer Ya'ke).

What I didn't realize was that one of my other favorite films, South of Pico, would walk away with the Heineken Red Star Award, which includes a full-page spread in Variety and a spot on the Independent Film Channel, and would also earn Henry Simmons the Best Actor award.

The remainder of the winning films I hadn't had a chance to see. There's only so much time in a film festival, and there was always a lot going on in addition to the screenings

I particularly regretted not seeing Prince Among Slaves, a documentary about an African prince who was sold into slavery but retained his dignity and eventually managed to return to Africa. It tied for Best Documentary with Black to Our Roots.

And I was sorry that I missed seeing Give Along the Way, winner of the Allstate Beyond February "Be Reel" Contest. The shorts in this contest were made to promote community spirit, and writer/director Alrick Brown gave a touching speech about his troubled community, saying that if he were to commit a murder he would make the front page, but no one is reporting on his presence (and win) at the film festival.

The award ceremony was followed by a public "conversation" with Blair Underwood, which unfortunately I had to miss. Then all that was left was the closing night film. There were actually two closing night film options.

Given a choice of a light-hearted romantic comedy or a dark drama, yours truly chose the drama. Titled Cover, it deals with faithful wives facing the threat of AIDS through unfaithful husbands. This powerful film will be getting a DVD release from Fox and is in negotiations to obtain theatrical distribution.