Beyond the glamour, the Cannes Film Festival is also a political stage, and this year is no exception. On the eve of the festival's opening ceremony last week, 600 film industry figures signed a petition denouncing ”the growing control of the far-right” over French cinema, targeting media giant Canal+.
Canal+ is France’s largest film financing company, funding around 43% of French movie production. Through its subsidiary StudioCanal, it is also one of Europe's biggest film financers.
The company is owned by far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who has built a media empire with TV channels, radio stations, newspapers, and publishing houses, many of which have become platforms for far-right voices.
The petition’s signatories, which include big names such as Juliette Binoche and Adèle Haenel, fear he may try to exert similar influence over the film industry, as he moves to take full control of UGC, France’s second-largest cinema chain.
The petition is one of the main talking points at the festival. Tensions escalated on Sunday when the head of Canal+ said he would no longer work with the signatories – effectively blacklisting them. Since then, the petition has gained another 2,200 signatures. Together, the signatories are credited on more than half of all French films released over the past five years.
French cinema isn't the only sector sounding the alarm. In April, one of France's historic publishing houses ousted its director after reported disagreements with Bolloré, who owns the parent company. Nearly 200 writers left the publishing house in protest.
Bolloré is waging an “ideological war to impose authoritarianism in the media and culture”, they wrote. “We do not want our ideas and our work to become his property.”
The timing matters. The far-right National Rally (RN) is leading the polls ahead of next year's presidential election. For a cultural sector already under pressure, the prospect of a far-right government is feared.
In towns that elected RN mayors in March's local elections, culture was among the first areas targeted. Festivals, exhibitions and other cultural events have been cancelled or stripped of public funding.
To defend those decisions, the RN has two arguments: that public money should go to less “elitist” events, and that it is necessary to save money. But critics see an attempt to impose a cultural agenda.
Under the influence of its mayor, elected in 2020, one town saw a local cinema cancel the screening of a documentary on Gaza and promote a controversial Catholic film instead, whose release was largely promoted by Bolloré-owned media outlets.