“I experienced this petition as an injustice towards the Canal teams who are committed to defending the independence of Canal+, and all the diversity of its choices. And as a result, I will no longer work, I do not want Canal to work with people who have signed this petition.” The CEO of Canal+, Maxime Saada, announced on Sunday, May 17, 2026, that he no longer wants his group, the largest funder of cinema in France, to continue working with professionals who signed a petition against their reference shareholder Vincent Bolloré.
Published on Monday at the start of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, signed notably by Juliette Binoche and Swann Arlaud, it denounces “the growing influence of the far right” in cinema through the conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who is currently facing opposition from around 200 authors published by Grasset.
“By allowing French cinema to be in the hands of a far-right boss, we are not only risking a standardization of films, but a fascist control over the collective imagination”, wrote the signatories, including producers, cinema operators, filmmakers, technicians, and actors.
170 million euros per year for French cinema
“Well, I don’t want to work with people who call me a crypto-fascist, I’m sorry, for me the limit has been reached.”, declared Maxime Saada during the “producers brunch” organized by Canal+ in Cannes.
The petition raised concerns about Canal+’s intent to take over the entire capital of UGC, the cinema network of theaters of which it acquired 34% in September. This petition has had limited impact on industry professionals interviewed this week by AFP, with many struggling to detect a change in ideological stance within Canal+ while expressing concerns about an overall decrease in funding. Under an agreement reached in January 2025, Canal+ has committed to allocate up to 170 million euros per year to French cinema by 2027, down from 220 million previously.
