THEY are three of the most familiar Asian faces at Cannes.

But when actresses Zhang Ziyi, Shu Qi and Michelle Yeoh walked down the red carpet, all eyes were on their backs.

All three wore outfits which bared their backs and shoulders to good advantage.

Ziyi, 30, probably attracted the most attention from the photographers with a shimmering outfit that looked like it was being held up by just a few flimsy strings.

The Beijing-born actress was at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival as a judge for the short film section.

The first-time judge had to watch the 24 nominated films in the space of four days, reported news website china.com

Ziyi said that she was under some pressure as short films tend to be the work of budding filmmakers, to whom the competition would be especially important.

The 12-day film festival at the French Riviera ended on Sunday.

The Palme d'Or went to Austrian director Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, a black-and-white movie about a village in northern Germany just before the start of the World War I.

Brillante Mendoza took home the Best Director prize for Kinatay, while Charlotte Gainsbourg snagged the Best Actress award for Antichrist.

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz won the Best Actor prize for his role as a Nazi officer in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

Ziyi presented him the award at the closing ceremony clad in the same backless gown that had Chinese news website Southcn.com describing her as a mermaid come ashore.

But Shu Qi, 33, was not to be outdone.

The Taiwan-born actress, who was at the festival section as a judge for the feature films category, worked a little backless magic of her own at the closing event.

The strong blue hue of her gown was a stark contrast to Ziyi's light pink, prompting one Chinese-language newspaper to describe their appearance at the ceremony as 'the battle of the bare backs'.

As for Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, 46, her moment of backless glory came a day earlier, at the screening of Visage, directed by Tsai Ming-Liang.

Seen from the front, Michelle's dress looked tame in comparison to Ziyi's and Shu Qi's outfits, or even the low-cut number she herself wore at the Vengeance screening earlier in the festival.

But as she turned her back on a row of photographers and the camera bulbs started flashing non-stop, it soon became clear that Michelle could certainly grin and bare it with the best of them.

Looks like the battle of the bare backs was a three-way fight.

PALME D'OR (GOLDEN PALM): The White Ribbon, by MichaelHaneke (Austria)

GRAND PRIZE: A Prophet, by Jacques Audiard (France)

JURY PRIZE: Fish Tank, by AndreaArnold (Britain) and Thirst, by Park Chan-wook (South Korea)

SPECIAL PRIZE: Alain Resnais withWild Grass

BEST DIRECTOR: Brillante Mendoza, Kinatay (The Philippines)

BEST ACTOR: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds (US)

BEST ACTRESS: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist (Denmark)

BEST SCREENPLAY: Feng Mei, Spring Fever (China)

CAMERA D'OR: Samson and Delilah, by Warwick Thornton (Australia)

This article was first published in The New Paper.