Canal+, France’s largest film producer owned by billionaire Vincent Bolloré, said on Sunday it will blacklist over 600 cinema industry professionals who signed a petition opposing Bolloré’s influence in the media and film sectors [1, 2, 3].
The open letter petition appeared just before the Cannes Film Festival and warned that Bolloré’s control risked "a fascist takeover of the collective imagination" through his expanding media empire [1, 3]. Signatories included prominent filmmakers and actors such as Juliette Binoche, Arthur Harari, Raymond Depardon, Sepideh Farsi, Cédric Klapisch, Gilles Lellouche, and Emmanuel Marre [1, 2, 3].
Maxime Saada, CEO of Canal+, said he regarded the petition as an injustice against Canal+ staff and announced at Cannes that the company would no longer work with anyone who signed the letter. "I will no longer work with and I no longer want Canal to work with the people who signed that petition," Saada said [1]. He emphasized his team’s commitment to defending the independence and diversity of Canal+ [2].
Bolloré owns a broad media empire that includes Canal+, the StudioCanal production and distribution company, CNews TV, Europe 1 radio, and Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper [1, 2, 3]. StudioCanal is Europe’s top film distributor, recently releasing titles like the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black and Paddington in Peru [1, 3].
The petition warned that Bolloré’s growing power, especially Canal+’s plan to acquire full ownership of UGC cinemas by 2028, could result in control of the entire French film production and distribution chain [1].
The blacklist announcement provoked strong reactions in the industry, including booing of Canal+’s logo at some Cannes screenings [2, 3]. Some commentators compared the ban on signatories to Hollywood’s McCarthy-era blacklists of the 1940s [3].
Earlier in May, over 100 authors resigned from the Bolloré-owned Grasset publishing group following the ouster of its CEO, signaling unrest within Bolloré’s media holdings [1, 2].
The blacklist announcement came on May 17, one day after the petition was published in the newspaper Libération on May 16, ahead of the Cannes Film Festival [1, 3]. Canal+’s stance sets a clear deadline for those on the blacklist to reconsider working relations with the company.
