Flóra Anna Buda’s Palme d’Or Winning Short Film ’27’ Arrives Online
The widely acclaimed, sexually charged, and visually stunning short 27 has finally arrived online.
Alice wakes up bloodied and disoriented in a bush after a bike crash. When the police spot her, she impulsively suggests a threesome to avoid arrest — or so it seems. The scene quickly unravels as a vivid fantasy, conjured during an intimate moment of self-pleasure in her bedroom.
Drifting through life without direction, Alice is consumed by unfulfilled desires, frequently retreating into sexual fantasies that never come to fruition. As her 27th birthday approaches, she still lives with her parents, clinging to a reckless, party-fueled existence. On the night of her birthday, Alice drinks to excess, crashes her bike, and ends up battered yet again. Is this the wake-up call she needs to confront the messy realities of adulthood, or just a fleeting pause before the bruises heal and her indulgent cravings take hold once more?
Blurring the lines between light and dark, sensuality and rawness, dreams and reality, 27 explores the life of a conflicted woman who escapes into fantasies while struggling to confront the demands of adulthood.
Alice’s struggles reflect those of a generation trapped in prolonged adolescence, with many still living at home well into their adult years. While Flóra Anna Buda’s narrative is deeply rooted in a Hungarian context, it captures universal challenges — amplified by the pandemic, inflation, war, and skyrocketing housing costs — that make achieving stability in today’s world an uphill battle.
27 marks Buda’s professional film debut. A graduate of MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) in Budapest, she first gained recognition with her graduation film, Entropia, which premiered at the 69th Berlinale and won the festival’s 33rd Teddy Award for films with LGBT topics.
27 premiered at the Cannes festival, where it was awarded the Palme d’Or for short film. Following this success, the film received the Cristal Award at the Annecy Festival, earned a nomination for the European Film Awards, and was shortlisted for both the César and Academy Awards in the animated short film category. 27 was produced by Miyu Productions (France) and Boddah (Hungary).
