Oct 11, 2023

2024 Academy Award Contender for Best Short Film: -27- Flora Anna Buda, dir.

Welcome to Cartoon Brew's spotlight series highlighting animated short films that have qualified for the 2024 Academy Awards. There are several ways for a film to qualify for an award. In this edition, we will focus on films that have won an Oscar-eligible award at a festival that is eligible for the Academy Awards.

Today's short is Flora Anna Buda's "27," which won a Special Mention at the 2019 GLAS Animation Festival and was featured in a scene in the short film "Entropia," which won the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.27 won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and qualified for the Academy Award. It went on to win three more awards at the Annecy International Short Film Festival: the Cristal Award for Best Short Film, the Award for Best Original Music (Best Short Film), and the Animation Sans Frontiéres (Animation Without Borders) Award.

In 27 years, the film's protagonist Alice celebrates her 27th birthday. An adult by all accounts, she lives with her parents and her nosy little brother, which makes her feel a little suffocated. Feeling stuck, she regularly disappears into her dreams to escape her boring life. After a psychedelic party on a factory rooftop, she gets drunk and is involved in a serious motorcycle accident. But will facing death help her gain control over her life...

Cartoon Brew: What have you learned from Entropia that has helped you the most in developing and producing "27," a more narrative-oriented and grounded story? I learned that working in a small team and doing the pre-production myself - thoroughly and accurately - can really get you the results you want. I loved working on Entropia as much as I loved making 27. This time, however, I wanted to try a different genre and tell a different story. I wanted to be braver, more communicative, and more direct. I also learned to express myself more effectively and I feel that by doing so I was able to create more of a connection between the film and the audience.

What attracted you to this story and concept and why did you take on the role of director? Every second of this story is inspired by an actual event that I experienced. Out of respect for the people who inspired me, I changed the characters' appearances and certain attributes to make it fictional. Let's say I had all the ingredients to make a salad in my fridge and I put it on the chopper. It looks different, but it's the same carrots and apples inside.

It wasn't until I moved out of my parents' house that my motivation to make movies became stronger. Since then I have moved from apartment to apartment, city to city, country to country. It's not over yet; I'm in the middle of packing up again. The house hunt continues, but this time I plan to stay in the suburbs of Paris.

What did you learn about production, filmmaking, creativity, or the subject matter through the experience of making this film? The fear I felt during production, that I would be humiliated or embarrassed if I showed this film to anyone, suddenly turned into power and healed many wounds. I also discovered the power of the film as I spoke with people who were moved by my story, and their empathy for the audience deepened. I also heard stories of people from my parents' generation who opened up after seeing the film and discussed the topic of sexuality with other friends, talking to each other about things they had never dared to talk about before. I feel that this may be our greatest achievement to date. Since the film received extraordinary reviews, it has opened new doors in my mind that I never dreamed of opening, and I am so grateful to have been able to make 27, and I hope to continue to do so in the future.

How did you construct the visual approach for this film and why did you settle on this style/method? It may sound strange, but I thought that if I could create a very aesthetically pleasing visual based on this painterly worldview and mood and colors, it would allow me to direct a very personal and pornographic film about my life and sexual fantasies. It worked.