\n\t
A wave of international stars including Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo and Ken Loach have joined the petition warning against what signatories describe as the \u201cfar-right grip\u201d tightening around the industry through Canal+ and its billionaire shareholder. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOriginally launched ahead of Cannes by roughly 600 French film professionals, the petition has ballooned to more than 3,500 signatures in the wake of comments made by Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada during the festival. Speaking at a producers\u2019 lunch last weekend, Saada said he no longer wished to work with artists who signed the petition, declaring: \u201cI don\u2019t want to work with people who call me a crypto-fascist.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
The petition, spearheaded by the collective \u201cZapper Bollor\u00e9,\u201d criticizes Bollor\u00e9\u2019s expanding footprint in French media and entertainment, including Canal+\u2019s planned acquisition of a 34% stake in cinema giant UGC. Signatories argue that the consolidation risks concentrating unprecedented influence over film financing, distribution and exhibition in the hands of a conservative media empire increasingly associated with right-wing editorial politics in the run up to the next\u00a0presidential election in 2027.<\/p>\n
The dispute\u00a0around Canal+ has become one of the festival\u2019s defining off-screen dramas. Le Monde reported that more than half of recent French films involved professionals who have now signed the petition. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe debate erupted earlier this week after roughly 600 film industry professionals, including Juliette Binoche\u00a0and Arthur Harari (whose film \u201cThe Unknown\u201d starring L\u00e9a Seydoux premiered at Cannes) signed the petition criticizing Bollor\u00e9\u2019s growing influence over French media and culture, calling out Canal+\u2018s acquisition of a 34% stake in theater chain UGC and raising concerns over a rightward shift of the group\u2019s editorial line in the run up to the presidential election in 2027, where the far right party Rassemblement National is a leading contender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wave of international stars including Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo and Ken Loach have joined the petition warning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,45527,447,134,331151],"class_list":["post-687476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-vincent-bollore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}