The FIFIB, moving to the Théâtre national de Bordeaux-Aquitaine (tnba) for its 15th edition from November 2nd to 7th, accuses UGC of unfair competition. This relocation is accompanied by a new festival village at Square Dom Bedos and a strengthened partnership with Utopia.
This situation follows a tribune signed by over 2,800 professionals, "Zapper Bolloré," which alerted on the increasing concentration of power in the film industry, notably through Vincent Bolloré's control of Canal+ over UGC.
In June 2026, Samuel Loiseau, director of UGC France and Belgium, reportedly expressed his dissatisfaction to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, requesting intervention with the FIFIB to restore the partnership. He argued that festivals should remain politically neutral.
Faced with the Region's refusal, threats of pressure on producers and distributors were allegedly made. In October, UGC launched the The Big Screen festival, coinciding with FIFIB, offering the same prices and two common films, including the opening and closing features.
FIFIB is defending these two films, La Bola Negra by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, and Mariage au goût d'orange by Christophe Honoré, as works of emancipation questioning norms and dominations.
The FIFIB team asserts that the freedom to undertake does not consist of programming the same films simultaneously and trusts the audience's intelligence, refusing to let economic power dynamics masquerave as programming freedom.
