Press Release

January 17 2023

POV Acquires A House Made of Splinters Shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards®

Overview

New York, N.Y. – January 17, 2023 – POV announced today the acquisition of the feature documentary, A House Made of Splinters, directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont, and produced by Oscar® nominee Monica Hellström (Flee). A House Made of Splinters was recently shortlisted for the 95th Academy Awards® from among 144 eligible films in the Documentary Feature category (full shortlists available here). The documentary will make its national broadcast premiere on PBS as part of POV's upcoming 36th season launching summer 2023.

A House Made of Splinters and previously announced Oscar Shortlisted POV Shorts films Shut Up And Paint and Happiness is £4 Million mark the latest shortlisted titles added to POV’s catalog. Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards® will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.

“We are delighted A House of Splinters, directed by POV alum Simon Lereng Wilmont, has been recognized by the Academy alongside such inspiring films,” said Erika Dilday, executive director/executive producer of American Documentary | POV. "For more than three decades American Documentary has championed the work of non-fiction filmmakers, and these films are supreme examples of the high level of talent that is in our industry. As the demand increases for authentic stories, especially those belonging to marginalized identities, public media allows us to share these films with audiences all across America, without any barriers to entry."

“We’re thrilled that POV has come on board A House Made of Splinters. Being on POV feels like coming home. We are really excited to collaborate again. They did an amazing job with our previous film The Distant Barking of Dogs so having A House Made of Splinters with them feels like a natural and perfect fit,” said director, Simon Lereng Wilmont.

The A House Made of Splinters deal was negotiated by Chris White and Erika Dilday for American Documentary | POV and Olivier Tournaud for Cinephil.

A House Made of Splinters
Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont/ Producer: Monica Hellström

86 min | Denmark / Finland / Sweden / Ukrainian | 2022

In a war-worn and impoverished corner of Eastern Ukraine where addiction casts a long shadow, there sits a safe haven for children temporarily removed from their parents. A House Made of Splinters follows three kids awaiting their fate—will they go back or move on to a new home?— while a group of dedicated social workers create small moments of joy and respite from childhood's all but lost.

Filmmaker and POV alumni Simon Lereng Wilmont returns with a follow-up to his acclaimed first feature, The Distant Barking of Dogs, offering a unique look into how the long-term consequences of war on a society already under strain impacts the most vulnerable. His is a poignant and deeply intimate portrait of a remarkable way station filled with care, support, and trust for a group of kids who are in desperate need of more.

A House Made of Splinters, made its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The celebrated film was shortlisted for the Oscars without an expensive FYC campaign and has been a word-of-mouth success. The timely documentary offers an incredible sense of discovery as people share and encourage each other to watch.

Credits

A House Made of Splinters

Director/Director of Photography: Simon Lereng Wilmont

Producer: Monica Hellström

Executive Producers: Signe Byrge Sørensen, Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary | POV

Editor: Michael Aaglund

About the Filmmakers

Simon Lereng Wilmont, Director/Director of Photography, A House Made of Splinters

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Simon graduated as a Documentary Film Director from The National Film School of Denmark in 2009. His first feature documentary film The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017), premiered at IDFA (2017), and was awarded Best First Appearance. It has since then won 35+ awards worldwide, among these the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at San Francisco’s SFFILM Festival, it was nominated for a European Film Award (EFA 2018), an Emmy (2020), and shortlisted for an Oscar (2019). The film also won a Peabody Award (2020). As a director, his films also include Dormitory Master (2009), Above Ground, Beneath the Sky (2008), Chikara - The Sumo Wrestler’s Son (2013) and The Fencing Champion (2014).

Monica Hellström, Producer, A House Made of Splinters

Monica Hellström is a three-time Academy Award nominee and was selected for Producer on the Move, Cannes 2020. She has been a producer at Final Cut for Real since 2010. She previously worked at Upfront Films and The Danish Film Institute's Film Workshop. She graduated from EAVE Producer Workshop in 2010, holds an MA in film from the University of Copenhagen (DK) and a BA in film from the University of Bedfordshire (UK).

Recent productions include: FLEE – Jonas Poher Rasmussen (2021) – Lead producer. Winner of Sundance World documentary award 2021, selected for Cannes 2020, winner of Best Nordic Dox at Gothenburg 2021 and the audience award at Vision Du Reel. Winner of The Gra Foundation & The Cristal Prize at Annecy 2021, Grand Prix Millennium Award, Best Film on Psychology & The Lower Silesia Grand Prix at Against Gravity, Poland. Nominated for 3 EFA awards and 3 Academy Awards. He’s My Brother – Cille Hannibal (2021), awarded a special mention at CPH:DOX 2021 and Dox:Münich 2021. Forget Me Not – Sun Hee Engelstoft (2019). The Distant Barking Of Dogs – Simon Lereng Wilmont (2017), Oscar shortlisted, awarded best doc at first appearance IDFA, Best Nordic Dox at Gothenburg and San Francisco Film Festival. Nominated for best doc at the European Film Academy. Winner of a Peabody award. The Dvor Massacre – Georg Larsen & K. Vedsmand (2016). The Fencing Champion – Simon Lereng Wilmont (2014). Chikara - The Sumo Wrestler’s Son – Simon Lereng Wilmont (2013). Moonrider – by Daniel Dencik (2012) As Co-Producer (selected) LITTLE GIRL – Sebastien Lifshitz (AGAT Films, France, 2020). Good Favour - Rebecca Daly (Savage Productions, Ireland, 2017). The Nile Hilton Incident - Tarik Salah (ATMO, Sweden 2017) Winner of best world cinema award at Sundance Film Festival 2017. Varicella - Victor Kossakovsky (Sant & Usant, Norway 2015) Concerning Violence - Göran Olson (STORY, Sweden, 2014) selected for Sundance Film festival and Berlin Film Festival.

About

About POV
Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied, American Promise and Minding The Gap and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras and Nanfu Wang. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

POV goes “beyond the broadcast” to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram.

POV films and projects have won 46 Emmy Awards, 27 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.

About American Documentary, Inc.
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Sage Foundation, Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Abby Pucker, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.