\n\tThe gloves are off.<\/p>\n
\n\tMaxime Saada<\/a>, Canal+<\/a> Chair and CEO, has hit back at an open letter launched on the opening night of the Cannes<\/a> Film Festival sounding the alarm over\u00a0tycoon Vincent Bollor\u00e9\u2019s growing control of the French entertainment and media sectors.<\/p>\n \n\tThe petition titled \u201cTime To Switch-Off Bollor\u00e9\u201d was signed by 600 cinema professional including Juliette Binoche<\/a>, Cannes 2026<\/a> Palme d\u2019Or contenders Arthur Harari<\/a> and Bertrand Mandico<\/a> as well as directors Yann Gonzalez, Sepideh Farsi and actors\u00a0Ad\u00e8le Haenel, Zita Hanrot, Samuel Kircher,\u00a0Ariane Labed,\u00a0Anna Mouglalis\u00a0and\u00a0Jean-Pascal Zadi.<\/p>\n \n\tIt took aim at the Canal+ Group\u2019s recent acquisition of a 34% stake in French production, distribution and exhibition major UGC, with an option to buy it outright by 2028. The letter warned it marked a new step \u201cin Vincent Bollor\u00e9\u2019s expansion strategy\u201d, suggesting it was part of a larger project to \u201cpush a right-wing, reactionary agenda\u201d in France.<\/p>\n \n\tSaada is reported to have addressed the letter at the Canal+ Group\u2019s annual producers\u2019 lunch on Sunday on the fringes of the Cannes Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI experienced this petition as an injustice towards the Canal teams who are committed to defending the independence of Canal+, and in all the diversity of its choices. And as a result, I will no longer work, I no longer wish Canal+ to work with the people who signed this petition,\u201d Saada, was quoted by French newswire AFP as well as trade paper Le Film Fran\u00e7ais as having said in a speech at the lunch.<\/p>\n \n\tBizarrely, Saada suggested the signatories had labelled Canal+ \u201ccrypto-fascist\u201d when this language is nowhere to be found in the open letter. (Scroll down for full original text of the open letter).<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf some go so far as to call Canal+ \u2018crypto-fascist\u2019, then I cannot agree to collaborate with them. That\u2019s the line. It is not acceptable that there is no consideration for the work of our teams,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tLast Tuesday\u2019s petition comes amid growing concerns within the French media, publishing and entertainment worlds about Vincent Bollore\u2019s via the Bollor\u00e9 Group. He officially stepped down as chair and CEO of the group in 2022, but is believed to still pull levers behind the scenes. <\/p>\n \n\tHe has been accused of being behind a shift to the right of the Canal+ Group\u2019s 24-hour news channel CNews (formerly known as i-T\u00e9l\u00e9) and the talk shows of channel C8, in the wake of his taking control of parent company Vivendi in 2014. <\/p>\n \n\tThe latter channel was sanctioned on a number of occasions by French TV watchdog Arcom for disinformation and regularly criticized for a lack of plurality in it guests. Its TNT licence was not <\/a>renewed in 2024 as part of a scheduled renewal process. <\/p>\n \n\tCanal+ was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2024, but the Bollor\u00e9 Group retains around 30% of the stock making it the group\u2019s biggest shareholder.<\/p>\n \n\tThere are similar concerns at the publishing group Louis Hachette Groupe, created out of the fusion of Lagard\u00e8re and Prisma Media, in which the Bollor\u00e9 Group is also the biggest shareholder.<\/p>\n \n\tVincent Bollor\u00e9 is seen as having had a hand in the appointment in 2023 of far-right journalist Geoffroy Lejeune as editor of Sunday newspaper Le\u00a0Journal du Dimanche, or\u00a0JDD,<\/a> as its Lagard\u00e8re Group parent group was in the process of being rolled into Vivendi.<\/p>\n \n\tMore recently there have been fireworks at publishing house Hachette Livre in France , following the ousting in April of Olivier Nora as CEO of Grasset to be replaced by longtime Bollor\u00e9 collaborator Jean-Christophe Thiery.<\/p>\n \n\tNora\u2019s sudden firing, after more than 25 years in the role, prompted the departure of 130 of its top authors, including Virginie Despentes, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Beigbeder, Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy and Vanessa Springora, who accused Bollor\u00e9 of attacking \u201ceditorial independence and creative freedom\u201d in an open letter.<\/p>\n \n\tBollor\u00e9 responded with a letter in the JDD mocking suggestions he had been behind Nora\u2019s removal, but also criticizing falling profits in recent years, without acknowledging the other headwinds currently facing the publishing world. He said the departed writers had made space for newcomers.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAs for the attacks concerning my ideology, I remind you yet again, that I\u2019m a Christian democrat and that the managers at Hachette will continue to publish who they want,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n \n\tBollor\u00e9\u2019s detractors also point to the move to the right of another Lagardere publishing house, Fayard, since 2023,\u00a0 which has recently published works by Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, and far-right politician and writer Eric Zemmour.<\/p>\n \n\tThe \u201cTime To Switch-Off Bollor\u00e9\u201d open letter received a mixed response from French journalists and film professionals in Cannes, with some suggesting that for now there are no signs of Canal+\u2019s cinema activities heading in a far-right or conservative direction.<\/p>\n \n\tThe day the letter was published, its pan-European studio arm Studiocanal<\/a> announced the arrival of Singer-songwriter, actress and trans rights activist FKA twigs for the role of Jazz Age sta<\/a>r and civil rights activist Josephine Baker in Ma\u00efmouna Doucour\u00e9\u2019s biopic as it launched sales in Cannes.<\/p>\n \n\tThe \u201cTime To Switch-Off Bollor\u00e9\u201d letter acknowledged this fact but noted that the signatories feared it could happen further down the line.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHis plans go beyond mere business deals: the billionaire makes no secret of his \u201ccivilization project.\u201d He is using his television channels such as CNews and his publishing houses to push his far-right, reactionary agenda,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo far, his ideological offensive on film content has been discreet. However, we hold no illusions: this will not last. By controlling the entire financial chain, Bollor\u00e9 has complete freedom to act when the time comes. We won\u2019t be able to say we didn\u2019t see it coming,\u201d it continued.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe complete dismantling of the CNC is part of the National Rally\u2019s program. Do we want to risk a future in which only propaganda films serving an ideology get funded?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn the backdrop, Canal+ remains one of France\u2019s biggest cinema funders. In an accord agreed with the main producer associations in March 2025, the group pledged to \u20ac480m ($558m) for cinema over three years, split between \u20ac150m (($174m) in 2025, \u20ac160m ($186m) in 2026 and\u00a0 \u20ac170m ($197m) in 2027.<\/p>\n \n\tAt Cannes, the group supported 27 films in Official Selection while Studiocanal is directly involved in five films in the selection including Palme d\u2019Or contender Another Day as well as Crescendo, Full Phil, Words of Love and Visitation.<\/p>\n \n\tAlongside the open letter the Canal+ and Studiocanal logos was also booed when they appeared on the big screen ahead of the Full Phil world.<\/p>\n \n\tSaada\u2019s threat to cut off signatories of the treaty are unlikely to thaw the atmosphere.<\/p>\n \n\tDeadline was told by the organisers of open letter as it went out that while many professionals agreed with its sentiments, there were many who had declined to sign for fear of reprisals. And since Saada\u2019s words, one signatory who was prepared to talk to Deadline on the record on the situation has not asked that they be quoted anonymously.<\/p>\n \n\tThe open letter in full:<\/p>\n \n\tTime to switch off Bollor\u00e9!<\/p>\n \n\tIn October 2025, the group Canal+ acquired 34% of UGC, the third largest cinema chain in France, with the prospect of acquiring 100% of its shares by 2028. This marks a new step in Vincent Bollor\u00e9\u2019s expansion strategy.<\/p>\n \n\tThrough Vivendi, Bollor\u00e9 already controls the Canal+ channel and its subsidiaries, including StudioCanal, Europe\u2019s number one film production company. By acquiring UGC\u2019s 55 cinemas in France and Belgium (including UGC Les Halles in Paris, the highest visited movie theatre in Europe, with 2.5 million admissions per year), Bollor\u00e9 could gain control of the entire chain of production, from financing to distribution on both small and big screens.<\/p>\n \n\tHis plans go beyond mere business deals: the billionaire makes no secret of his \u201ccivilizational project.\u201d He is using his television channels such as CNews and his publishing houses to push his far-right, reactionary agenda. So far, his ideological offensive on film content has been discreet. However, we hold no illusions: this will not last. By controlling the entire financial chain, Bollor\u00e9 has complete freedom to act when the time comes. We won\u2019t be able to say we didn\u2019t see it coming. The complete dismantling of the CNC is part of the Rassemblement National (France\u2019s biggest far-right party)\u2019s program. Do we want to risk a future in which only propaganda films serving an ideology get funded?<\/p>\n \n\tThe culture war that everyone talks about is not a mere clash of ideas. By leaving French cinema in the hands of a far-right billionaire, we risk not only a homogenization of films, but a fascist takeover of our collective imagination.<\/p>\n \n\tWe, producers, distributors, exhibitors, filmmakers, screenwriters, technicians, cinema workers, and above all citizens, no longer wish to remain spectators.<\/p>\n \n\tToday, for our projects as much as our salaries, we all depend to varying degrees on Bollor\u00e9\u2019s money and we want to break the insidious silence imposed on our industry.<\/p>\n \n\tTogether, let\u2019s build a movement to defend our independence and our freedom to create, distribute, and program and join the ones who have started to do so.<\/p>\n \n\tLet\u2019s gather against Bollor\u00e9 taking control of UGC and against the far-right\u2019s ever growing control over our industry<\/p>\n \n\tLe Collectif Zapper Bollor\u00e9 (\u201cSwitch off Bollor\u00e9\u201d) and more than 500 members of the film industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gloves are off. Maxime Saada, Canal+ Chair and CEO, has hit back at an open letter launched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[274142,280080,26021,18451,252484,32176,236,88,102752,104042,166667],"class_list":["post-649340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-arthur-harari","tag-bertrand-mandico","tag-canal","tag-cannes","tag-cannes-2026","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-juliette-binoche","tag-maxime-saada","tag-studiocanal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}