CANNES--Asia picked up its first Cannes honors on Saturday when South Korean director Hong Sang-soo scooped a coveted sidebar prize, as the world's biggest film fest revs up for its 2010 finale.

"Ha Ha Ha," which ends with a peal of laughter, tells of a drunken trip down memory lane as a film-maker prepares to leave Korea to live in Canada, and won top prize at the Cannes film festival sidebar competition, Un Certain Regard.

Asia has a powerful contingent in the more prestigious competition for the Palme d'Or, the top honor at the 12-day festival, to be awarded Sunday night by "Alice in Wonderland" director Tim Burton in a gala red-carpet finale.

Five of the 19 films running for the Palme are from the region.

Un Certain Regard gave its jury prize to "Octubre," a first feature by Peruvian brothers Daniel and Diego Vega. The movie tells the story of a Lima loan shark who suddenly finds himself saddled with a baby.

The best acting prize went to the three actresses in the Argentinian film "Los Labios," by Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza, who play women travelling to a remote town to do welfare work among the local poor.

In other warm-up prizes dished out on Saturday, awards went to two of the French films in the running for the Palme -- one about Catholic monks threatened by Islamist militants in Algeria, the other featuring US stripteasers.