As the 79th Cannes Film Festival opens on the Croisette, politics is competing with glamour for attention. Hundreds of figures from the French film industry have signed an open letter warning about what they describe as the growing influence of the far right within French cinema and media. At the centre of the controversy is French billionaire and media tycoon Vincent Bolloré, owner of Canal+, the powerful television group that plays a major role in financing French films.
Open letter or not, Bolloré’s control of Canal+ gives him a stranglehold on which films get funded—that’s the real story here.
It’s ironic that Cannes, which loves to celebrate ‘artistic freedom,’ is now a stage for debating how much power one billionaire has over French cinema.
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Bolloré’s far-right leanings are no secret; I just hope the films he backs don’t start pushing propaganda over artistry.
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