Roy said in a statement sent to AFP that she was “shocked and disgusted” by responses from Wenders and other jury members to a question about the Palestinian territory at a press conference Thursday.
Roy, whose novel The God of Small Things won the 1997 Booker Prize, had been announced as a festival guest to present a restored version of the 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, in which she starred and wrote the screenplay.
However, she said that the “unconscionable” statements by Wenders and other jury members had led her to reconsider, “with deep regret.”
When asked about Germany’s support for Israel at a press conference Thursday, Wenders said: “We cannot really enter the field of politics,” describing filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics.”
Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska said it was “a little bit unfair” to expect the jury to take a direct stance on the issue.
Roy said in her statement that “to hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping.”
She described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.”
“If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them,” she said.
Roy is one of India’s most prominent living authors and a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, as well as a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause.
Restored versions of two films by late Egyptian directors — Sad Song of Touha by Atteyat Al Abnoudy and The Dislocation of Amber by Hussein Shariffe — have also been withdrawn from the festival over its stance on Gaza.
“The Berlinale respects these decisions,” a spokeswoman said in a statement sent to AFP.
“We regret that we will not welcome them as their presence would have enriched the festival discourse,” she said.
The Berlinale has long been known for topical, progressive programming, but this year’s edition has seen several stars avoid taking positions on major political issues.
U.S. actor Neil Patrick Harris, who stars in the film Sunny Dancer, was asked Friday whether he considered his art political and whether it could help “fight the rise of fascism.”
He replied that he was “interested in doing things that are apolitical” and that could help people find connection in what he called a “strangely algorithmic and divided world.”
This year’s Honorary Golden Bear recipient, Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh, also declined to comment on U.S. politics at a press conference Friday, saying she “cannot presume to say I understand” the situation there.
The festival has previously faced controversy over the Gaza war.
In 2024, its documentary award went to No Other Land, which follows the dispossession of Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
German government officials criticised what they described as “one-sided” remarks about Gaza by the directors of that film and others at that year’s awards ceremony.