Arundhati Roy to skip Berlin Film Festival after jury’s ‘unconscionable’ remarks about Gaza

Author and activist Arundhati Roy on Friday said that she will not be attending the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, where her 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones has been selected to be screened under the Classics section.

She said she took the decision after members of the jury of the Berlin film festival said that art should not be political, when they were asked to comment about Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

“We have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics,” The Guardian quoted Wim Wenders, a director and a jury member, as saying. “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.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on besieged Gaza since then, leaving more than 70,000 persons dead.

The film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones was written by Roy and directed by Pradip Krishen.

The 76th annual Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is taking place from February 12 to February 22 in Berlin, Germany.

Read the full text of Roy’s statement below:

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 filmmakers 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 filmmakers 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.