Wim Wenders Walks Back Berlinale Politics Comments at Venice: 'I Never Said That'
Wim Wenders has clarified the remarks about filmmakers and politics that overshadowed this year's Berlin Film Festival, telling a Venice press conference that he was misquoted.
The German director, at Venice to present his documentary From Inside Out — The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, said he never told filmmakers they "have to stay out of politics" (Variety). That phrasing, he said, was a distortion of what he actually meant.
Back in February, Wenders served as jury president at the Berlinale — the Berlin International Film Festival, one of the world's top three film festivals alongside Cannes and Venice. At the opening press conference, he was asked whether the festival should take a stand on the Gaza conflict. He responded that the festival must "stay out of politics" and that filmmakers who make "dedicatedly political" films enter the field of politics themselves (DW). He also called filmmakers "the counterweight of politics" and "the opposite of politics" (Screen Daily).
The comments detonated. Nearly every filmmaker and actor at the Berlinale faced questions about politics, the Gaza conflict, and U.S. ICE raids (Variety). Author Arundhati Roy, who clashed with Wenders at the festival, pulled out of the Berlinale entirely in protest (ArtReview). Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle issued a statement responding to the controversy (Variety).
Seven months later, Wenders is drawing a distinction. At Venice, he reframed his position: filmmakers are "the opposite of politicians" and "the antidote" to politics — not people who should avoid the subject entirely (Variety). The shift is subtle but pointed: where Berlin's phrasing suggested withdrawal, Venice's implies opposition.
He also wore an "Imagine Peace" shirt to the press conference (Variety).
The timing lands against a direct counterpoint. At Venice's own opening press conference, jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal said movies are "fundamentally, undeniably political" (Variety). Two of Europe's grandest festivals, two jury presidents, two answers that do not quite agree.
For the film world, the back-and-forth touches a nerve that runs deeper than any single festival. Festivals are marketplaces as much as showcases — the place where sales agents and buyers decide what reaches screens — and the question of what artists owe to the political moment has shadowed recent editions of Berlin, Cannes, and Venice alike. Wenders, a filmmaker whose career spans five decades and whose work has long crossed borders, is unlikely to be the last person asked to reconcile the two roles.
