Politics at Cannes > Right wing Canal+ drops bomb on Cannes Film Festival

 

French film giant Canal+ to blacklist hundreds over petition against right-wing owner

FRANCE

France's biggest film producer Canal+ will no longer work with hundreds of industry professionals who signed a petition against right-wing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré, the group announced Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, sending shockwaves through the European film industry. The petition called on people to oppose "the growing grip of the far right" on French film.

By: FRANCE 24

Video by: Nicholas RUSHWORTH

The head of France's biggest film producer, Canal+, said Sunday that the group would no longer work with 600 industry professionals who signed a petition against right-wing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré.

The announcement, made at the Cannes Film Festival, is likely to send shockwaves through the European industry at the annual gathering of the world's movie elite on the French Riviera.

READ MOREFrench media tycoon Vincent Bolloré casts shadow over Cannes opening

"I experienced that petition as an injustice toward the Canal+ teams, who are committed to defending the independence of Canal+ and the full diversity of its choices," chief executive Maxime Saada said on Sunday in Cannes.

"I will no longer work with and I no longer want Canal to work with the people who signed that petition," he added.

The petition called people to mobilise against "the growing grip of the far right" on the film industry under the influence of Bolloré and the Canal+ group.

Maxime Saada, président de la chaîne de télévision privée française Canal+, pose à son arrivée à la 46e cérémonie des César, qui s'est tenue à l'Olympia à Paris le 12 mars 2021. © Thomas Samson, AFP

Signatories included French superstar Juliette Binoche as well as director Arthur Harari, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning "Anatomy of a Fall" in 2023 and is premiering his film "The Unknown" in the main competition in Cannes.

Emmanuel Marre, whose film "A Man Of His Time" about France's collaboration under Nazi rule, is also in the Cannes competition and also signed the petition.

The tumult mirrors similar upheaval in the media and publishing worlds where Bolloré, who is close to far-right politicians, is reshaping businesses he controls from television channels to publishing houses.

In a sign of Bolloré's divisive reputation, the Canal+ logo was booed in Cannes at some screenings this year, including for the opening film "The Electric Kiss".

Last month, more than 100 authors at the Bolloré-owned Grasset publishing group, home to some of the biggest names in French literature, said they would leave after the ousting of its long-time CEO.

Bollore's aggressive expansion into the French media in recent years has been cheered by conservatives as rebalancing what they see as long-standing left-wing bias.

The billionaire, a devout Catholic who made his money in logistics, has been frequently compared by commentators to Australian-born US media mogul Rupert Murdoch, with the Bolloré-owned CNews news channel bearing similarities to Murdoch's right-wing US network Fox News.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)