Cyrille Bolloré, who took over from his father Vincent at the helm of the Bolloré Group in 2019, has rejected accusations that his family or Canal+ are pursuing any political agenda, telling shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting in Paris on Wednesday that there is “no political project” and dismissing the idea as “a giant lie.”
He was responding to a controversy that has roiled the French film industry and turned out to be the biggest scandal of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It began with a petition (organized by the collective Zapper Bolloré) signed by some 600 industry figures – including Juliette Binoche and Arthur Harari — warning of Vincent Bolloré’s growing grip over French media and culture. The dispute erupted at the Cannes Film Festival after the roughly 600 professionals — including Juliette Binoche and director Arthur Harari — signed the petition, organized by the collective “Zapper Bolloré.” The signatories pointed to Canal+’s acquisition of a 34% stake in theater chain UGC, with a potential move to full control by 2028, and raised concerns about a rightward editorial shift across Bolloré-linked outlets.
The crisis escalated when Canal+ chairman Maxime Saada said he would no longer finance films from the petition’s signatories. He defended the group’s editorial independence, noting that Canal+ split from Vivendi 18 months ago and is now listed on the London Stock Exchange, and insisted that the company “supports all kinds of cinema, all of its diversity,” citing socially engaged films such as Boris Lojkine’s “Souleymane’s Story” and Dominik Moll’s “Case 137.”
