The filmmaking team behind Garance, one of the French Competition titles at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, entered the current debate surrounding Canal+ and Vincent Bolloré’s growing control over the company during a press conference this morning. 

“I think this is a huge waste. I think it’s probably an impetuous reaction, which in my view is not justified in any manner whatsoever,” Hugo Sélignac, a producer on Garance, said in response to a question about the debate. 

“However, we have this threat, and we’ll have to get around it. People have signed the petition, and they’re entitled to their ideas. But this is all rather extreme. We have these entities that finance French cinema, and all this is beginning to shake.” 

He continued: “I’m very upset by this. We all agree that this is a very impetuous decision that creates a sort of blacklist…Now there is a real battle underway, which I find very upsetting.” 

Alain Attal, another producer on Garance, concurred and said the situation is “very upsetting.” 

“I understand these people have felt very upset, considering all the support they have given us over the past 10 years,” he said. “As producers, we get strong support. We never come under attempts to influence us.” 

Launched on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival, the open letter titled “Time To Switch-Off Bolloré” was signed by 600 cinema professionals, including Juliette Binoche and Cannes 2026 Palme d’Or contenders Arthur Harari and Bertrand Mandico.

The letter took aim at the Canal+ Group’s recent acquisition of a 34% stake in French production, distribution, and exhibition major UGC, with an option to buy it outright by 2028. The letter warned it marked a new step “in Vincent Bolloré’s expansion strategy”, suggesting it was part of a larger project to “push a right-wing, reactionary agenda” in France.

Garance director Jeanne Herry said she can understand why “people are in fear.” 

“Canal+ is a very important distributor in my life. They supported me and followed me, and they’ve already allowed me to make the films I want to make,” she said. 

“The French system for cinema is wonderful. We produce the third most films in the world. Cancel plus stands at the center of that. It’s a marriage based on love, at the same time.”

Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada addressed the letter at the Canal+ Group’s annual producers’ lunch on Sunday on the fringes of the Cannes Film Festival.

“I experienced this petition as an injustice towards the Canal teams who are committed to defending the independence of Canal+, and in all the diversity of its choices. And as a result, I will no longer work, I no longer wish Canal+ to work with the people who signed this petition,” Saada was quoted by French newswire AFP as well as trade paper Le Film Français as having said in a speech at the lunch.

 The organizers of an open letter have since responded. 

“These intimidation tactics are typical of his group’s majority shareholder, Vincent Bolloré,” the letter organizers, gathered under the banner of Zapper Bolloré (Switch-Off Bolloré), said in a statement sent to Deadline.

“Our open letter, responding to the UGC acquisition, only ever singled out the aforementioned without incriminating the Canal+ teams. This threat, however, confirms our fears. Can we still believe in Canal+’s independence from the far-right billionaire, against whom it is now officially impossible to speak out?,” it continued.

Cannes runs until May 23.