Michelle Yeoh and Neil Patrick Harris avoided making any political statements Friday at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival, instead echoing comments made by competition jury head Wim Wenders the day before.
Yeoh, who was awarded the festival’s Honorary Golden Bear award Thursday night by “Anora” director Sean Baker, was asked at a press conference if she had any comments to give as an international performer about the current political state of America. Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia and lives primarily in Switzerland, declined to do so.
“I don’t think I am in the position to really talk about the political situation in the U.S., and also I cannot presume to say I understand how it is. So, best not to talk about something I don’t know about,” the Oscar winner said. Yeoh, who collaborated with Baker on a short film titled “Sandiwara” that is premiering Friday at the festival, added that she would rather focus on “what is important for us, which is cinema.”
Politics again came up during the press conference for filmmaker George Jacques’ “Sunny Dancer,” which stars Harris, Bella Ramsey, James Norton, Jessica Gunning and Earl Cave. The film’s plot revolves around a group of young people who find friendship at a summer camp for cancer survivors. During the movie’s press conference, its stars and director were asked whether they consider “art to be political, and if so, how can movies these days help fight the rise of fascism in Europe and in America?”
“I think sometimes the most rebellious thing you can do is be optimistic,” Jacques responded. “We wanted to make a film about joy. I think, you know, there’s so much going on in the world right now, and I wanted to make something that really takes you somewhere else.”
Harris, for his part, said, “I think we live in a strangely algorithmic and divided world right now. And so as artists, I’m always interested in doing things that are apolitical, because we’re all as humans wanting to connect in some way. That’s why we experience things together.” His comment was met by fierce pushback from the journalists in attendance, one of whom said it was “embarrassing” for the film’s team to say the film isn’t political.
A different reporter later asked Harris, “Do you dare to criticize your government and do you think democracy in the U.S. is in danger?” The question provoked a shocked “wow” from the Emmy and Tony winner, who followed that remark up with a full response. “I feel more the jester in the castle. So while I have my own political opinions, which are my own, I think as a performer, especially in this kind of movie, it’s trying to be as inclusive as possible to as many people as possible,” Harris said. “So I never read this script as a political statement.”
Yeoh and Harris’ comments fall in line with those made at the festival’s introductory press conference Thursday by jury head Wim Wenders, who responded to questions about the Israel-Gaza war by insisting that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics.”
“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,” the “Perfect Days” filmmaker said. In the same press conference, when the jury was asked if films have the power to change the world, Wenders responded, “Movies can change the world, not in a political way.”
“No movie has really changed any politician’s idea, but you can change people’s idea of how they should live,” he explained. “Cinema has an incredible power of being compassionate and being empathetic. The news [is] not, politics [is] not empathetic. But movies are.”
It has not only been some of the journalists in attendance at the festival who have taken issue with the non-political commentary. Screenwriter Arundhati Roy, who was set to present her 1989 film “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones” as part of the Berlinale’s Classics Section, announced that she would no longer be attending the festival this year.
“To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping,” she shared in a Friday statement. “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.”
“If the greatest film makers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them,” Roy continued. “I am shocked and disgusted.”
