Award-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy said Friday she was withdrawing from the Berlin Film Festival over jury president Wim Wenders's comments that he wanted to "stay out of politics" after being asked about Gaza. Roy said in a statement sent to AFP that she was "shocked and disgusted" by Wenders' response to a question on Gaza at a press conference on Thursday. However, she said that the "unconscionable" statements by Wenders and other jury members had led her to reconsider. In her statement, Roy described Israel's actions in Gaza as "a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel". "If the greatest film makers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them," she said.

Source: The Local February 14, 2026 15:23 UTC