Author Arundhati Roy, 'Shocked and Disgusted' by Jury's Gaza Remarks, Pulls Out of Berlinale 2026

In a major development ahead of Berlinale 2026, author and activist Arundhati Roy has announced she will not attend the Berlin International Film Festival. In a statement dated February 13, 2026, Roy said she was shocked by comments reportedly made by members of the festival jury regarding Gaza, particularly the suggestion that art should not be political. Roy described the situation in Gaza as genocide and criticised Germany and the United States for complicity. The full text of Roy's statement is below. It is followed by the remarks by German film makers including the celebrated Wim Wenders, that films cannot do political work.

Roy’s statement follows:

In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, a whimsical film that I wrote 38 years ago, was selected to be screened under the Classics section at the Berlinale 2026. There was something sweet and wonderful about this for me.

Although I have been profoundly disturbed by the positions taken by the German government and various German cultural institutions on Palestine, I have always received political solidarity when I have spoken to German audiences about my views on the genocide in Gaza. This is what made it possible for me to think of attending the screening of Annie at the Berlinale.

This morning, like millions of people across the world, I heard the unconscionable statements made by members of the jury of the Berlin film festival when they were asked to comment about the genocide in Gaza. To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping. It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time – when artists, writers and film makers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.

Let me say this clearly: what has happened in Gaza, what continues to happen, is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. It is supported and funded by the governments of the United States and Germany, as well as several other countries in Europe, which makes them complicit in the crime.

If the greatest film makers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them. I am shocked and disgusted.

With deep regret, I must say that I will not be attending the Berlinale.

Arundhati Roy

February 13, 2026

The controversy

The videojournalist Tilo Jung, who asked a question about Gaza to the jury posted the following tweet on 'X':

Don't ask about Palestine at the Berlinale!

Here's my question to the jury about selective solidarity of the film festival with the people of Iran and Ukraine vs. Palestinians. Wim Wenders (jury president) actually said: "We have to stay out of politics" #Berlinale2026 pic.twitter.com/09SZOzk3Nf

— Tilo Jung (@TiloJung) February 12, 2026

DropSiteNews, an independent news outlet, shared the live feed on its X account:

The live feed for the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, which is primarily financed by the German federal government, was cut when journalist Tilo Jung asked about the festival’s “selective solidarity” with Iran and Ukraine, and lack of solidarity with… https://t.co/ecAw0jUW7b

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) February 12, 2026

Wim Wenders, president of the Berlinale 2026 jury, said film makers should “stay out of politics” when asked about Gaza and Germany’s support for Israel, reported Variety magazine on February 12, 2026. The report can be accessed here. In a press interaction, when the competition judges were asked about film and its influence on politics, Wenders argued that films can change people’s ideas, but not politicians’ decisions, and that film makers should “do the work of people, not politicians.”

The celebrated German director said “movies can change the world,” but “not in a political way,” Variety reported.

Jury member and film maker Ewa Puszczyńska, who was reportedly the first to respond to direct questions about the war on Gaza, called the questions “a bit unfair” and said artists cannot be responsible for viewers’ political choices. The press conference livestream briefly cut out during the discussion, which Berlinale blamed on technical issues.

That is when Wenders said: “We have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics. But we are the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”

Taken together, these developments are not a “debate” about art and politics – they are an attempt to assert politics over violence. Wenders’ insistence that film makers must “stay out of politics” functions as a refusal to name what is happening in Gaza, even as it unfolds in full view. Roy’s withdrawal from Berlinale 2026 is a direct rejection of that refusal: a decision to break the enforced silence and to plainly state that neutrality, in the face of mass killing, is not neutrality at all.

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