AFP
Adèle Haenel, Jean-Pascal Zidi, Juliette Binoche, Blanche Gardin and some 600 cinema professionals are signing a platform against Vincent Bolloré’s influence on their sector.
A few hours before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, several major figures in French cinema come out of silence against Vincent Bolloré. In a column published by Libérationnearly 600 professionals in the sector denounce the growing influence of Vincent Bolloré on French cinema and warn of what they consider to be a threat.cultural» and «ideological ”.
Among the signatories are Juliette Binoche, Raymond Depardon, Adèle Haenel, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Blanche Gardin. Everyone supports the call launched by the collective “Zapper Bolloré”born in recent months in a climate of growing tension around the billionaire’s control over the media and audiovisual sectors. The movement was structured after several weeks of discreet discussions between directors, producers, programmers and technicians in the sector, worried about the dependence of French cinema on Canal+.
In October 2025, Canal+, propriété de Vivendiacquired 34% of the group’s capital UGCwith the objective of gradually increasing to 100% by 2028. An operation which worries part of the sector, while Vincent Bolloré already controls Canal+, StudioCanal and several major media.
Canal+ also occupies a central place in the financing of French cinema, of which the chain is one of the main investors: for many producers, distributors or exhibitors, it is today almost impossible to produce certain films without the financial support of the group.
« A fascist takeover of the collective imagination »
The concern of the signatories goes well beyond the economic question alone. The authors of the column accuse Vincent Bolloré of leading, through his media and his publishing houses, a “civilizational project” reactionary and far-right. They fear that ultimately, this concentration of media and cultural power will end up directly influencing the works produced, financed and distributed.
“We are not only risking a standardization of films, but a fascist takeover of the collective imagination.”they write.
The forum also discusses the program of the National Rally, which notably provides for a questioning of the CNC and public broadcasting. The signatories say they fear a cultural landscape where certain films would no longer be financed.
The text also emphasizes the climate of economic dependence which runs through the sector. “We depend today, to varying degrees, for our projects as much as our salaries, on money from Vincent Bolloré.”write the authors, who call for “sort ensemble du silence”.
