Hungarian filmmaker Flóra Anna Buda’s animated short film “27” has earned the Palme d’Or for Best Short at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
The Hungarian-French 2D-animated short film revolves around the life of Alice, a 27-year-old woman who feels trapped in her current circumstances, residing with her parents and bothersome younger brother.
Seeking liberation from her monotonous existence, she finds solace in her imaginative dream world. However, one fateful night, following her attendance at a rooftop party, Alice is involved in a harrowing bike accident caused by intoxication, which prompts her to reconsider her life choices.
According to a report by Hungarian news site Telex, the National Film Institute (NFI) congratulated her for her achievement, even though they had previously refused to support the film on three previous occasions.
While the filmmaker thanked the institute for their congratulatory comments, she said that “What bothers me is that instead of talking about who put how much effort into this film, we are talking about the NFI again, which has nothing to do with this success.”
Although the Film Institute did not provide money for the animated short film citing a lack of resources, the film benefited from a 30% Hungarian tax rebate through the Film Office, which is available to all films produced in Hungary, according to the report.
“So there is Hungarian money in the film, but unfortunately it is not the Film Institute’s merit,” she added, while thanking Hungarian producers Gábor Osváth and Péter Benjámin Lukács and the Hungarian production crew led by Nadja Andrasev, for their effort.
Flóra Anna Buda graduated from the Department of Animation Directing at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in 2018. Her earlier work “Entropy” earned her a Teddy Award at the 2019 Berlinale.
