De Niro Founds New Film Festival

The Goodfellas star previously co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002, held annually in New York, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

And now De Niro has signed an agreement to launch a sister event in Doha, starting in November next year (09), which he hopes will help build up understanding between Arabs and the rest of the international community.

He says, "We hope that film will not only be used as a form of entertainment at Tribeca Film Festival Doha but play a role in bridging cultures closer together.

"By learning each other's stories, we can see how much we share in common as well as explore and better understand our differences."