During the closing ceremony of Göteborg Film Festival 2022, this year’s Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary was awarded to Simon Lereng Wilmont for his Sundance winner A House Made of Splinters.
The film concerns the children and staff in a Ukrainian institution for children who have been removed from their homes while awaiting court custody decisions. Staff do their best to enable the children to have as safe and supportive life as possible. A House Made Of Splinters also won the Directing Prize at Sundance 2022
Citation of the Nordic jury:
“The jury has been challenged by a wonderful selection of documentaries that have surprised us, made us cry and provoked us with a wide range of stories and ways of storytelling that truly has made us proud of the filmmakers of the Nordic region,” says the jury.
“The award goes to an exceptionally beautiful film. A film that with its presence and despair is more urgently burning than ever possible. With poetically unforgettable images, it gives a voice to the children’s heartbreaking stories, with a brutal war in the background. The story and the images that carry so much weight, sometimes feel light, like a soap bubble floating carefree in a room. In its total darkness, there is a little shimmer, a spirit of warmth and hope.”
The members of the jury were Stina Gardell, producer and director, Sweden, Maciej Kalymon, director, Sweden and Racha Helen Larsen, producer and festival director, Norway.
The films competing for Best Nordic Documentary were:
A House Made of Splinters by Simon Lereng Wilmont
Historjá – Stitches for Sapmí by Thomas Jackson
The Mission by Tania Anderson
Kandis for Life by Jesper Dalgaard
Good Life by Marta Dauliute, Viktorija Šiaulyte
Love & Divorce by Maud Nycander
Golden Land by Inka Achté
Name of the Game by Håvard Bustnes
