Led by Chinese director Hasi Chaolu's "The Old Barber", Asia swept the honours at the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) that concluded here Sunday, even as the hosts were totally blanked out.

The jury, headed by Dutch-born Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer, gave "The Old Barber" the Best Film award, while the most promising director award went to South Korea's An Kyung-Lee for "A Short Life".

The big surprise of the evening was the Special Jury prize for Bangladeshi film "Nirontor" directed by Abu Sayeed.

For India, the evening was a huge letdown because its two competition contenders - Sharada Ramanathan's "Sringaram" in Tamil and Ahsan Muzid's "Sonam", the first film in Arunachal Pradesh's Monpa dialect - drew a complete blank.

"So high was the quality of the films in competition that we would have been happy to hand out eight or nine awards. But that, sadly, wasn't possible," Heer said in a brief speech at the closing ceremony, that included a concert by Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash and the screening of the critically acclaimed "Babel", directed by Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

"I am sure this competition will grow stronger in the coming years and emerge as an important destination for some of the best films from around the world," Heer added.

A jury that included Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua, French director Olivier Assayas, Argentine actress Leticia Bredice and Polish actress Grazyna Szapolowska judged the 11 films in the competition section.

Among the films in this section that generated a buzz but lost out were "Poet of the Wastes" by Iranian director Mohammad Ahmadi and Israeli filmmaker Shemi Zarhin's "Aviva My Love".

In her address, writer-director-actress Aparna Sen, the chief guest at the closing ceremony, asserted that IFFI was an event worth strengthening.

"I am sure people will soon get used to Goa as the permanent venue of the festival," she said, referring to murmurs that the event might be held elsewhere in future.