How Trump took over the world’s glitziest film festival

CANNES, France — Every evening a crowd of fans and photographers flock around the red carpet of the most prestigious movie festival on the planet, where stars like Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn show up on their way to premiere screenings.

But in the rest of the town, another American is on everyone’s lips: U.S. President Donald Trump.

While in the dark of movie theaters, films from all over the world are competing to win the prestigious Palme d’Or, the movie industry's producers and distributors, as well as politicians and lobbyists, will be getting together in the French Riviera to seal deals and check the temperature of the cinema sector. 

During their meetings, whether in hotel suites, dedicated waterfront stands or cafés, there is a moment in the conversation when Trump and his crusade against non-U.S. cinema inevitably come up.

In early May, the U.S. president threatened to drag the movie industry into his trade war against the rest of the world by slapping tariffs on “foreign” movies. What worries Europe’s industry even more is that the Trump administration has also waged war against EU rules that allow national governments to force streaming platforms, often American, to invest in European productions.

With these two swords of Damocles hanging over their heads, the European movie industry players gathered in Cannes hope that Brussels will stand up to Trump’s threats.

“The atmosphere is a lot more political, even geopolitical, than before,” said French director Pierre Jolivet, drinking a Coke with POLITICO in a local bar. 

And Cannes already has a long political track record.

The Cannes kermesse was born as a political move in 1939, a reaction to the takeover of Venice’s festival by Nazis and fascists. It became the theater of confrontation in May 1968 with nouvelle vague directors like François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard on the frontline. While no longer quite as spectacular, the festival remains a forum where artists stand up to power. This year has been no exception, with Robert De Niro attacking Trump and U.S. director Richard Linklater calling the U.S. president's idea of applying tariffs to foreign-made movies “dumb.” 

“We have understood that the U.S. has become an enemy, politically and culturally,” said Jolivet, who is also president of ARP, an influential association of French directors, producers and screenwriters.

Once upon a time in Hollywood 

Industry insiders admit that it’s too early to say whether Trump’s tariff threat is just a bluff, and stress that such duties are likely illegal and would be difficult to enforce. But they also realize that the menacing tactics are sparking uncertainty in the sector.

And some side effects are already showing. 

One French movie producer here, granted anonymity to speak about private business negotiations, said a U.S. distributor had paused ongoing talks on distribution of a non-American movie in the U.S., citing the need for more clarity on the Trump administration's next move before signing the deal. 

Others are worried that the threatened tariffs would deprive U.S. audiences of movies that don’t fit with Trump’s agenda. “With these tariffs, he would cut off films that are important for immigrants,” said Sunitha Ram, an Indian film producer in Cannes.

Trump’s tariff threat is seen as an attempt to discourage movie productions from shooting films outside the U.S. Filming in Los Angeles dropped by 22 percent during the first quarter of this year due to several factors including production costs. But Hollywood heavyweights, some close to Trump, think tax credits would be a better solution to keep more shooting at home.

France, the birthplace of cinema, is making no secret of its efforts to attract U.S. and other foreign productions to make movies in France. The government in Paris even organized dedicated meetings in Cannes over the weekend and in Versailles on Monday as part of a “Choose France” program, under which French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce €20 billion in new investment in several sectors.

Fighting for the cultural exception 

But something else worries the movie industry more than the looming tariffs. The industry fears that in U.S.-Europe trade negotiations, Washington could pressure Brussels to dilute the EU's audiovisual media services directive, which allow countries like France to require that streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and others invest in a minimum quota of local productions. The so-called AVSMD directive is set to be reviewed next year. 

“We fear that this directive could be part of tariffs negotiations with the U.S.,” said Juliette Prissard, general delegate of producers’ association Eurocinema, a point echoed by all the producers POLITICO met in Cannes.

While the European Commission has so far avoided a frontal attack against Trump on his movie tariffs threats, EU commissioners in Cannes tried to reassure the industry that the AVSMD directive won’t be used as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations with Washington.

“The culture sector, in my opinion, should not be part of discussions or disputes in relation to trade,” EU Culture Commissioner Glenn Micallef told POLITICO while sitting on the grass in front of an overcrowded café. “It is of course not our approach to include or by any means have this as part of a negotiation.”

Commission Vice President Stéphane Sejourné was even more direct. “At a time when some in the United States are trying to impose a single culture on us, with tariffs on European cinema, we defend keeping European content obligations on all platforms," he said on Saturday at an event organized by the CNC, the French agency responsible for promoting cinema and co-funding films.

“This is non-negotiable," Sejourné stressed.

Over the weekend, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati signed an op-ed with more than 20 of her EU colleagues, calling for “a collective leap forward for a Europe of Culture” in reaction to attacks on freedom and diversity. In a speech at the CNC event, Dati said she would fight to “preserve” the AVSMD directive.

But the strong words don’t seem to have reassured the movie industry. 

On Sunday afternoon, a group of movie directors organized a rally on the town’s croisette beach where they read a declaration, warning that “the economic war waged by the USA is also a cultural war!” and accusing the European Commission of treating culture like any other economic sector. That "manifesto" has been signed by dozens of cinema industry groups and famous directors like Claude Lelouch and Paolo Sorrentino.

“For the European Commission, culture is not a real issue,” said French movie producer Marc Missonnier, who also chairs the French cinema producer union.

“The risk is that some stories will disappear and our horizon will be dominated by stories imagined by others,” he said, sitting on a deck chair on the beach at Cannes.