Canal+ has said it would no longer work with the more than 600 film professionals who signed an open letter attacking its right-wing owner, Vincent Bolloré.
The French group is the country’s largest film producer and sits at the heart of a growing row over Bolloré’s control of the industry.
The open letter, published in the left-wing newspaper Libération on May 11, the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, was signed by actors including Juliette Binoche, Adèle Haenel and Swann Arlaud, alongside directors such as Arthur Harari and Sepideh Farsi.
Most of the signatories are lesser-known industry workers rather than household names, though several leading figures lent their support.
Its signatories accused Bolloré of pursuing a reactionary political project and warned that leaving French cinema in his hands risked “a fascist takeover of the collective imagination”.
They also claimed his expanding empire had handed him control of the entire film-making chain, from financing through to distribution and release in cinemas.
Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada hit back at the company’s producers’ brunch in Cannes on May 17. He called the petition an injustice to Canal+ teams that were committed to defending the channel’s independence and the diversity of its output.
Saada said the letter amounted to branding those teams “cryptofascists”, and added that he had no wish to work with anyone who called him one.
Bolloré, through his Bolloré Group, is the biggest shareholder in Canal+, France’s largest pay-TV company, and in its subsidiary Studiocanal, one of Europe’s leading production firms.
His media holdings also include the news channel CNews and the radio station Europe 1, both of which figures on the Left have accused of giving airtime to right-wing voices.
Some commentators have likened Bolloré to the Australian-American media owner Rupert Murdoch, pointing to the politics of the outlets he controls.
The dispute was triggered by Canal+ plans to take full control of UGC, France’s third-largest cinema chain, a move the signatories likened to a takeover of French cinema itself.
The blacklist threat has alarmed parts of the French film world, which depends heavily on Canal+ money.
Critics have drawn comparisons with Hollywood’s McCarthy-era blacklists, when people suspected of holding particular political views were frozen out of work.
Bolloré has previously rejected claims that he uses his outlets to push a political agenda. At a French senate hearing in 2022 he said he was interested only in making money and in promoting French soft power abroad.
