The festival opened as scheduled on Tuesday, March 19th, at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. There were snacks and light drinks, and the hundreds of festival-goers were having a grand time meeting friends and taking pictures.

(To CORRECT the record: although I mentioned earlier that that the opening was delayed, this was an error. It was scheduled for 8:00 P.M. and actually began at 7:59! Apologies to Katha and Don.)

Festival Directors Don and Katha Cato began the ceremonies with acknowledgements to the many supporters present. All of the filmmakers were then invited onstage to be honored as a group. Then Don and Katha  announced the “Spirit of Queens” Award for Melvin Van Peebles who, unfortunately, was not present to accept it. But he attended the tribute screening of his classic film, Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song, considered one of the crown jewels of the “blaxploitation” movement, on Wednesday.

One of the filmmakers, C.O. Moed, introduced the films for the first night. There were three short films, including her own film, F**king Him, which was a nominee in the Best Animation category. But the night’s narrative feature, Oblivion Season, was a powerful Iranian film directed by Abbas Rafei. A realistic and intimate study of an abused wife who must support the family after her husband is injured in an accident, it showed in unflinching detail the degraded position of women in that country.

A special screening of Susan Seidelman’s Smithereens was shown on Saturday night. This indie classic comedy from 1982 delighted the festival goers for the last night of the festival. Ms. Seidelman was the honored guest for the screening, and she was interviewed and participated in the Q and A after the film. She was also honored with a special award at the closing ceremonies.

But the big excitement for the closing night was the announcement of the awards. It was held in the Paper Factory Hotel, just a few blocks from the Museum, and it was perfect for the celebration. There were honorable mentions, as well as winners, in many categories. Oblivion Season, which was the feature chosen to open the festival, was awarded the prizes for Best Actress (Sareh Bayat) and was also given the Special Jury award.  Also Elliot Cowan, who was spotlit by FFS in an earlier article, was given Honorable Mention in the Best Animated film category for The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead. Everybody looked like they were having fun. There were no long speeches; they just took the award from Don Cato, said their brief thanks, and stepped down from the podium.

Perhaps they were all too exhausted to say more. At any rate, winners and losers alike had the experience of sharing their vision with the public. And also, they hoped, with the distributors who were there to offer contracts to the brightest indie stars of tomorrow.

We congratulate the entire team that worked so hard to make the festival happen. Now in its sixth year, Queens World Film Festival is as serious as ever in promoting independent film.