When it came down to the wire, politics nudged art off centre-stage, giving Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary 'Fahrenheit 9/11' top prize over the film all the critics were talking about  Chinese movie '2046' by cult Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai.

But Asians walked home with Best Actress, Best Actor, the runner-up Grand Prize and a shared special award for Thailand's first-ever bid at the Palme.

With Quentin 'Kill Bill' Tarantino, the US director entranced by Asian film, heading this year's Cannes jury, it was hardly a surprise that movies from the East stole centre-stage from movies from the West at the Riviera festival.

Films by established auteur darlings, such as US team Joel and Ethan Coen or Serbia's Emir Kusturica, went home empty-handed, and Brazil's Walter Salles, another hot tip for his road-movie on Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, failed to win a mention.

But then, neither commercially-driven Hollywood nor artsy Europe appear to be producing as much novel and varied cinematic work as Asia nowadays.

After almost missing its deadline for screening at Cannes, '2046' took Cannes by storm. It was the most-liked movie by a worldwide panel of critics listed in the film industry magazine Screen International.

The same panel was cool about Thailand's debut Cannes film, 'Tropical Malady' by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, though the jury, along with a few French critics, were over the moon over the two-part avant-garde tale featuring gay romance and a walk through the night jungle on the tracks of a mythical tiger.

"My film is so personal I'm not sure how well it will travel," Apichatpong told journalists. "But I hope this will encourage other Thai filmmakers."

On the acting front too, performers from Asia hogged the screen.

Maggie Cheung gave an emotionally-strong performance as a junkie pop-star mother in 'Clean' directed by her French ex-husband and was rewarded with a Best Actress prize. "He is the director who understands me the most," she said. "Because you know we were very close."

The 39-year-old Chinese actress, who has starred in several films by Wong Kar-wai, notably in the 2000 movie 'In The Mood For Love', made a name in the West in 1992 in 'New China Woman'.

She recently starred in 'Hero', Zhang Yimou's mega-martial arts production starring Jet Li.

Also in the limelight at Cannes was China's Zhang Ziyi, the former 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' star listed as one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful women in 2002. She was breath-taking both as a blind warrior in the out-of-competition 'House of Flying Daggers' and as one of the four women in '2046'.

The much talked-about 'Flying Daggers' is Chinese auteur Zhang Yimou's second foray into the popular epic martial arts after 'Hero' of 2002. Also at Cannes and also liked was Johnnie To's action movie 'Breaking News'.

Asian film, which is grabbing an ever-growing share of Cannes, festival after festival, this year accounted for six of the 18 films competing to win the coveted Palme d'Or trophy.

Japan and South Korea each had two movies in competition for the prize, and each scored prizes, bolstering hopes for their buoyant local industries.

South Korea is one of the few countries outside the United States where domestic productions outnumber foreign films in box-office takings, and 'Old Boy' by director Park Chan-wook, the Cannes runner-up that won the Grand Prize, has been one of the country's biggest hits.

The ultra-savage flick  which includes the main character slicing his tongue off and eating a live octopus  is about a man who is incarcerated and tortured in a hotel room but doesn't know why. It kept critics on the edge of their seats with its twisted narrative and graphic violence.

Tarantino especially was reported to have loved it.

Japanese films too dazzled. A quiet human drama about four small children deserted by their mother and left to fend for themselves  'Nobody Knows' by Hirokazu Koreeda  was listed as one of the favourites at the end of the fest and its teenage star Yagira Yuuya was named Best Actor.

"It was the fruit of a whole year of work with these children," said Koreeda on accepting the award on behalf of the boy, now 14 years of age.

Virtually invisible on the screens this year was Bollywood, but India turned out in force to sell its increasingly popular movies and growing festival scene.