Beirut International Film Festival (BIFF) opened on Wednesday, with some 40 international and Araba films and documentaries to show in the week-long event.

Held by Beirut Film Foundation, the event is the ninth one and it will attract the audience's interests with Francis Ford Coppola 's and Chinese American director Ang Lee's new films.

The festival's opening ceremony on Wednesday night was attended by the legendary American director Coppola, and followed by his new production "Tetro", the story of two brothers reunited after a 10-year separation.

The 70-year-old Coppola is a multiple Oscar-winning director, and is most renowned for directing the trilogy, "The Godfather."

The festival will also screen at the closing ceremony on Wednesday next week Ang Lee's latest film "Taking Woodstock", about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, the symbol of the then popular hippie culture.

However, The organizers said the Oscar-winning American Chinese director will not attend the festival.

Films are from countries as far as Japan, "Akiresu To Kame" by Takeshi Kitano, and the Netherlands, Coco Schrijber's "Bloody Mondays and Strawberry Pies", an exploration of human boredom narrated by American actor and director John Malkovich.

The festival also has competitions of feature films and short films from Middle East area. Directors from Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and the Palestinian Territories take part in the festival.

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