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. <\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“I will no longer work with and I no longer want Canal to work with the people who signed that petition,” he added.<\/p>\n
The petition called people to mobilise against “the growing grip of the far right” on the film industry under the influence of Bollore and the Canal+ group.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The tumult mirrors similar upheaval in the media and publishing worlds where Bollore, a conservative close to far-right politicians, is reshaping businesses he controls from television channels to publishing houses.<\/p>\n
In a sign of Bollore’s divisive reputation, the Canal+ logo was booed in Cannes at some screenings this year, including for the opening film “The Electric Kiss”.<\/p>\n
Last month more than 100 authors at the Bollore-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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 Bollore-owned CNews news channel bearing similarities to US network Fox News. <\/p>\n
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