The wick has been lit. It even led to an explosion as resounding as it was unexpected for an environment that had until now been very cautious when it came to its relations with Canal, and the main shareholder of the group, Vincent Bolloré. Fear of reprisals prevailed. Difficult to attack head-on the leading financier of French cinema (170 million euros invested in 2025), and by far, ahead of France Télévisions (60 million), TF1 (33 million)….
“Civilizational project”
Motus therefore, until Tuesday May 12, the opening day of the festival, chosen by the newspaper “Libération” to publish the now famous “anti-Bollor” column, denouncing the “growing influence of the extreme right” in the seventh art, through “the intermediary” of the Breton billionaire, and the latter’s “reactionary civilizational project”, conducted “through its TV channels and publishing houses”. In a response that made as many waves as the platform, Maxime Saada, chairman of the Canal board of directors, indicated that his group would boycott the signatories.
If it testifies to real fears in the cinema sector, this petition was considered clumsy by professional organizations, which did not sign it, due to the absence of examples of censorship: at this stage, Canal finances a wide variety of films, without ideological orientation particular.
François Aymé, director of the Jean-Eustache cinema in Pessac (33), was one of the first signatories, without regrets. “This forum had the merit of publicly raising the question of the influence of Vincent Bolloré. She also underlines that Canal plans, in 2028, to buy the UGC cinema network, which will further accelerate the ongoing concentration. We can have two attitudes: either take the risk that Vincent Bolloré does in the cinema what he did at the “Journal du Dimanche” or at CNews, by imposing his ideological line, or sound the alarm.”
Either we take the risk that Vincent Bolloré does in the cinema what he did at the “Journal du Dimanche” or at CNews, or we sound the alarm
Tartes à la crème
This Cannes episode is not the first example of the concerns raised by the expansion of the activities of Vincent Bolloré, today present in television (Canal+), radio (Europe 1), the press (“Journal du Dimanche”, Prisma), publishing (Hachette)… An empire accused on the left of being guided by an ideological agenda, in the service of the extreme right.
Barely a month before the festival, the dismissal of Olivier Nora, director of Grasset, had already been the occasion for an unprecedented rise in tension. “We refuse to be hostages of an ideological war aimed at imposing authoritarianism everywhere in culture and the media,” lamented dozens of writers, in an open letter announcing their departure from the house.
The Breton industrialist, who presents himself as a “Christian Democrat”, defends himself from any ideological agenda. “It’s all pies and custard… I have no ideological project,” he assured in 2024 during a hearing at the National Assembly.
“Vincent Bolloré has given an obvious editorial inflection to structures like CNews, Europe 1, both of which were not doing well, to the ‘‘Journal du Dimanche”Â, to Fayard… We put a lot of emphasis on the ideological dimension, but we should not underestimate the aspect marketing: these reorientations work quite well in terms of audience and sales. And they concern “small shops” in terms of turnover. It would not be in its interest, economically speaking, to apply the same method to a group as unifying as Canal, world leader, with an annual catalog so broad that it cannot be restricted to an ideological segment, believes Philippe Bailly, president of the NPA Conseil firm, specializing in the media and digital economy. In addition, in cinema, fairly strict clauses govern Canal’s investments. For example, legal obligations require that nearly 20% of this money be devoted to low-budget feature films, less than 4 million euros. As for the acquisition of the UGC network, it worries part of the profession, but another welcomes the fact that a powerful group is investing in cinemas at a time when, in the face of streaming, their model is threatened.
Vincent Bolloré has received support from the right and the far right, who insist on his freedom as an entrepreneur
“Culture War”
“What changed in Cannes with the petition was that there was a lot of political reaction. The subject has entered the public debate, observes François Aymé. It’s a good thing, one year before the presidential election. » Vincent Bolloré has received support from the right and the far right, who insist on his freedom as an entrepreneur.
On the left, the Insoumis promise “a major anti-media concentration law” in the event of victory in 2027. “An emergency,” said MP Clémence Guetté, briefly hesitant when a journalist asked her asked if this law would also apply to the group Combat (Radio Nova, “Les Inrockuptibles”, Rock en Seine…) by Matthieu Pigasse, sometimes presented, in the current climate of “cultural war”, as a “left-wing Bolloré”. “The difference is that Vincent Bolloré is much richer! Universal’s IPO brought it billions of euros,” underlines an observer.
In a note published on May 12 on anti-concentration regulations, the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, close to the PS, considers the current laws effective in limiting “horizontal concentrations” – an actor dominating a market, such as the press or the audiovisual sector, through a succession of takeovers in this sector. But, operating in silos, insufficient in the face of “concentrations verticals” – “an actor who takes control, link after link, of the entire chain, without exceeding the regulatory thresholds in each of these fields.”
