Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy withdrew from the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival on February 13 — the day after jury president Wim Wenders told journalists that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics.”
Wenders made the statement at the festival’s opening jury press conference in response to a question about Germany’s military support for Israel and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. “We are the counterweight of politics,” he said. “We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”
Roy had been scheduled to attend a restored screening of her 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones in the Classics section. She withdrew the same morning the video of Wenders’ remarks reached her, releasing a statement through India’s The Wire describing herself as “shocked and disgusted.” She wrote that hearing claims that art should not be political was “jaw-dropping” — and that such a claim amounted to “a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time.”
The Berlinale, which built its reputation over decades as the most politically engaged of the major film festivals, has spent the past two years in demonstrable retreat from that identity. In 2024 it refused to join other festivals in denouncing the genocide in Gaza. In 2026, its jury president declared a politics-free zone in response to a direct question about mass civilian death.
Germany’s government has been one of Israel’s most significant weapons suppliers since October 2023. The festival’s primary public funder is the German state. Wenders’ “apolitical” position is a political position — one that happens to be convenient for the institution’s primary patron.
Roy was not alone in her outrage. Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, and 81 other artists signed an open letter criticizing the festival’s silence on Gaza. A Palestinian filmmaker who won the festival’s top prize, Abdallah Al-Khatib, addressed the German government directly from the stage: “You are partners in the genocide of Gaza by Israel.”
The festival released a brief statement saying it “regrets” Roy’s absence. It did not address what she had actually said. The festival director noted that artists are “free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose” — an acknowledgment that free speech exists, accompanied by a refusal to model it.
Roy has written for decades about the relationship between silence and complicity. At the Berlinale, she found a case study.
Arundhati Roy Left the Berlinale Because Wim Wenders Said Art Should Stay Out of Politics. She Said That Was the Politics.
Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy withdrew from the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival on February 13 — the day after jury president Wim Wenders told journalists that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics.”
Wenders made the statement at the festival’s opening jury press conference in response to a question about Germany’s military support for Israel and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. “We are the counterweight of politics,” he said. “We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”
Roy had been scheduled to attend a restored screening of her 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones in the Classics section. She withdrew the same morning the video of Wenders’ remarks reached her, releasing a statement through India’s The Wire describing herself as “shocked and disgusted.” She wrote that hearing claims that art should not be political was “jaw-dropping” — and that such a claim amounted to “a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time.”
The Berlinale, which built its reputation over decades as the most politically engaged of the major film festivals, has spent the past two years in demonstrable retreat from that identity. In 2024 it refused to join other festivals in denouncing the genocide in Gaza. In 2026, its jury president declared a politics-free zone in response to a direct question about mass civilian death.
Germany’s government has been one of Israel’s most significant weapons suppliers since October 2023. The festival’s primary public funder is the German state. Wenders’ “apolitical” position is a political position — one that happens to be convenient for the institution’s primary patron.
Roy was not alone in her outrage. Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, and 81 other artists signed an open letter criticizing the festival’s silence on Gaza. A Palestinian filmmaker who won the festival’s top prize, Abdallah Al-Khatib, addressed the German government directly from the stage: “You are partners in the genocide of Gaza by Israel.”
The festival released a brief statement saying it “regrets” Roy’s absence. It did not address what she had actually said. The festival director noted that artists are “free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose” — an acknowledgment that free speech exists, accompanied by a refusal to model it.
Roy has written for decades about the relationship between silence and complicity. At the Berlinale, she found a case study.