CANNES — Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada announced on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival that the channel will no longer work with filmmakers who signed an open letter protesting owner Vincent Bolloré's control of the company. The open letter, published earlier in the week to coincide with the festival's opening, was signed by more than 600 cinema figures.

"An injustice toward the Canal+ teams, who are committed to defending the independence of Canal+ and the full diversity of its choices," Saada said in Cannes. He added, "I will no longer work with and I no longer want Canal to work with the people who signed that petition."

Signatories of the letter included actor-director Juliette Binoche, director and photographer Raymond Depardon, French-Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and director Arthur Harari. At some Cannes screenings this year, the Canal+ logo was booed, including at the screening of the opening film The Electric Kiss.

Canal+ is the largest film producer in France. The channel has taken a stake in UGC, the third-biggest network of French cinemas, with a view to fully owning it in 2028.

Bolloré's media holdings also include the channel CNews, the radio station Europe 1 and the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. StudioCanal, a film and television production and distribution group based in Europe, is also owned by Bolloré.

Last month, more than 100 writers quit the publishing house Grasset in protest at Bolloré's control of its parent company Hachette. Following that departure, Bolloré wrote in Le Journal du Dimanche that those who had quit were "a tiny caste who think themselves above everyone else." He also wrote in the same article, "As for the attacks concerning my 'ideology', I'm a Christian democrat." At a 2022 Senate hearing, Bolloré denied political or ideological interventionism, said his interest in acquiring media was purely financial, and said his cultural empire was about promoting French soft power.