''The festival gave me hope,'' Anthony says. ``The first year I went was the first year they held it in Miami, and they had all these celebrities and all these wonderful films. I remember sitting down and listening to Robert Townsend and Bill Duke and realizing that it was possible and that our films are relevant, if you're willing to do the work.''

Dwayne Boyd, the director of 4 Minutes, a feature-length romantic comedy in the festival's Narratives Competition, says that despite all the inroads African Americans have made within Hollywood, the festival still plays a critical role in the careers of filmmakers just starting out.

''They are the premier film festival in the country for African-American content,'' Boyd says. ``Without them, we would still be fighting to find distribution and get our film in front of audiences. Without them, we don't have a voice in the independent film circuit.''

Festival producer Reggie Scott says the need for the event remains strong. ''Hollywood hasn't changed that much,'' he says. ``We're in June. Can you name me three major theatrical releases this year directed by black filmmakers? Besides Denzel Washington or Will Smith, can you name me another black actor who gets leading roles in major Hollywood films? The reason we still need this kind of film festival is that there's still a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of Hollywood and people of color.''

Attendance at this year's festival is expected to reach around 5,000, with roughly 3,000 coming from out of town. The event's drawing power is why city of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, who also chairs the Community Redevelopment Agency, was eager to have the festival return.

''We have been trying to come up with creative ways to attract filmmakers back to Miami, so we plan to have trolleys running through the weekend, getting people off the Beach and across the bridge to the Overtown/Omni district so they can see all the resources we have available to them in the city and promote an area that truly needs the help,'' Spence-Jones says.

'It went beyond just having a great festival come back to Miami. It was also the opportunity to have John Singleton and other great filmmakers here in town so we can say `If you want to shoot a movie in Miami, here's a great district for you to shoot in.' ''

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