The head of Canal+, France’s largest film producer, has said the studio will no longer work with hundreds of cinema professionals, who signed a petition voicing concern over the growing influence of the studio’s rightwing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré.

More than 600 French industry figures, including actors Juliette Binoche, Adèle Haenel and Swann Arlaud, and directors Sepideh Farsi and Arthur Harari, signed the open letter, published earlier this week, calling out Bolloré’s right-wing politics and his expanding control over the French film industry.

“Leaving French cinema in the hands of a far-right owner,” the letter reads, risked “not only the standardisation of films, but a fascist takeover of the collective imagination.”

Through his media company Vivendi, Bolloré already owns Canal+, France’s largest pay-TV company, and its subsidiary Studiocanal, Europe’s leading film production company. Bolloré’s media empire includes CNews, a popular French news channel that figures on the left have attacked for allegedly giving a platform to far-right voices.

The open letter was sparked by Bolloré’s plans to take full control of UGC, France’s third-largest cinema chain, something the letter writers equated to a “fascist takeover” of French cinema.

The film industry figures warn that Bolloré’s expanding media empire puts him “in the position of controlling the entire fabrication chain of films from their financing to their distribution and their release on the big and small screen.”

“The influence of [his] ideological offensive on the content of films has so far been discreet, but we are under no illusion: this won’t last,” they wrote.

Speaking at the Canal+ producers brunch in Cannes on Sunday, Saada called the petition “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 said the open letter amounted to calling the Canal+ teams “cryptofascists.” “Well, I don’t want to work with people who call me a cryptofascist,” he said.

In a senate hearing in 2022, Bolloré denied using his media empire to forward any political or ideological agenda, saying he is only interested in making money and in promoting French soft power abroad.