Juliette Binoche, Adèle Haenel, Arthur Harari… 600 professionals denounce the growing influence of Vincent Bolloré on cinema.

In a column published the day before the Cannes Film Festival, the world of cinema expresses alarm at the extreme right billionaire’s plan to “acquire 100% of the shares” of the UGC cinema chain “by 2028”.

The column, released online on Monday, May 11th, just before the festival begins, is featured on Tuesday, the opening day of Cannes 2026, on the front page of Libération. Around 600 cinema professionals have signed a text denouncing the “growing influence of the extreme right” in cinema through billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

Signatories such as actors Swann Arlaud, Juliette Binoche, Damien Bonnard, and Adèle Haenel, producer Rémi Bonhomme, directors Sepideh Farsi and Arthur Harari, as well as a group called Zapper Bolloré, state that they do not want to “remain bystanders”. They express concern that by leaving the French cinema industry in the hands of an extreme right-wing figure, there is a risk of not only standardizing films but also facing a fascist control over collective imagination.

They highlight that the Canal+ group, of which Vincent Bolloré is a major shareholder, “has acquired 34% of UGC’s capital, the third-largest network of French cinemas, with the prospect of acquiring 100% of the shares by 2028.” With this potential acquisition, Vincent Bolloré could have control over the entire film production chain, from financing to distribution on screens big and small.

The signatories believe that beyond his businessman facade, the billionaire does not hide that he leads a “civilizational project”, as an extreme right-wing shareholder, through his television channels like CNews and publishing houses. They warn that despite the discreet influence of this ideological offensive on the content of films for now, it is unlikely to last, urging the need to “build together a movement capable of defending independence.”

This mobilization follows protests from hundreds of publishing professionals, French and foreign authors, as well as publishers, who have objected to the dismissal of Olivier Nora, CEO of Grasset, a publishing house within the Hachette group under the influence of Vincent Bolloré.