Zend Framework makes development a lot easier; for instance there is a getPost function from the Zend_Http that handles POST parameters.
Is there anything similar to handle file uploads? I can access $_FILES directly, but I would rather use a built in function to keep things consistent.
you can use Zend_Form_Element_File, it has very similar functionality as Zend_File_Transfer and it works without any problems.
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.form.standardElements.html#zend.form.standardElements.file
You can do file uploads with Zend_Form. Tutorial here.
Read about Zend_File_Transfer. Does that do what you need?