The Winnipeg Film Group is excited to announce the recipients of the Fall 2025 MFM Marketing Fund:
Car Seat by Alan Wong – $750
About the project:
Filmmaker, Alan Wong, travels to Vancouver to meet an old friend visiting from Japan – Taro, along with his wife and two young children. Alan borrows a child seat from a friend to use for the rental car, so they can drive around to different sites in Vancouver and Richmond, BC. Over scenes shot on super 8 film, Alan laments not having a family or children of his own. Set to original music by the filmmaker.
Alan Wong is a multidisciplinary performing artist, filmmaker, and arts leader of Chinese heritage, born and raised in Winnipeg. As a filmmaker, Alan is committed to creating honest, thought-provoking works that explore society and the human experience. His debut short documentary, A Dwarf’s Hideout, won Best Canadian Short at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, and his surrealist comedy short, The Interrogation M.A., earned the Golden Boy Award from the ACTRA Manitoba MIP Showcase. Alan has produced numerous short films and contributed in various roles on sets both large and small. He is currently producing a short documentary chronicling his 82-year-old father’s immigrant journey for CBC.
Beyond his independent work as a performer and filmmaker, Alan has served as Producer’s Associate at Buffalo Gal Pictures and Secretary of the Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba. He was formerly Executive Director of the Gimli International Film Festival and now serves as President of the FascinAsian Film Festival—an event celebrating Asian diaspora cinema and fostering community in Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg. Alan holds a Bachelor of Music from Brandon University and an Arts & Cultural Management Certificate from the University of Winnipeg. An experienced event coordinator, facilitator, and producer, he has helped deliver hundreds of successful projects across diverse genres.
Alan Wong / Photo courtesy of the filmmaker
Cruising in Gomorrah by Coby Friesen – $750
About the project:
Childhood friends Chris and Alex reunite on a camping trip to an idyllic but reportedly haunted creek. Tensions mount as Chris’ deep Christian faith clashes with Alex’s worldly desires, until a dark presence pervades the creek and awakens unconscious desires that force the friends to reckon with their sexualities.
Coby Friesen is an emerging writer and filmmaker based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After years of helping friends on short films, participating in the 48 Hour Film Festival, and working on union film sets, Coby finally applied to Gimli International Film Festival’s RBC Pitch Competition in summer of 2022. He did not win but gained valuable experience, and the loss spurred him to make his debut short film Hook Up, which screened at the 2023 Vancouver Queer Film Festival and won the “Top Emerging Director” award at the Reel Pride Film Festival in Winnipeg. In 2024, he competed again (and won) at the RBC Pitch Competition with the idea for the erotic horror Cruising in Gomorrah, which recently had its world premier at the 25th annual Gimli International Film Festival. In September it screened at the 40th annual Reel Pride International Film Festival, winning the “Jury’s Choice Best Short Film” award. In October, Coby also screened his latest short film Dream Life at the 20th annual WNDX Festival of Moving Image.
Coby Friesen / Photo courtesy of the filmmaker
catalogue by Danielle Sturk – $750
About the project:
A visual poem that highlights the diversity, creativity, and resilience of filmmakers who have often been underrepresented in the broader film canon, CATALOGUE marks the Winnipeg Film Group’s 50th anniversary with a striking collage of 116 film titles by 80 women, non-binary filmmakers, and their collaborators, transforming five decades of the Distribution Catalogue (1974–2024) into a living cinematic archive celebrating the act of creation.
Danielle Sturk is a Franco-Manitoban storyteller, directing episodic drama for television, experimental films and unique award-winning documentaries for over two decades. Her hybrid-documentary EL TORO was nominated for the Directors’ Guild of Canada (DGC)’s Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film and awarded two Golden Sheaf Awards at the Yorkton Film Festival, one for Best Director Non-Fiction and one for Best Experimental Film. It also garnered a spot on the 2019 Hot Doc’s Top 5 Audience Pick list. Danielle adapted the documentary into a six-part, one-hour drama series which she single-handedly wrote and directed. The original series for Radio Canada received a nomination for both a DGC Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Miniseries, and a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Series nomination from the Yorkton Film Festival. A recipient of over 35 arts council grants, the Manitoba Hothouse Award and a Major’s Arts Grant, Danielle’s independent work has been screened at national and international film festivals and broadcast on most Canadian platforms. She is currently in postproduction on the one-hour documentary she wrote and is directing “The Art of Social Architecture”, on the short-form French-language dramedy series she is producing, “Les faillites d’Astrid”, and is writing her first feature film.
Danielle Sturk / Photo by Laina Brown
Thank you to all who applied for the Fall 2025 MFM Marketing Fund. All submissions were juried by a peer assessment committee.
The Winnipeg Film Group acknowledges Manitoba Film & Music for graciously supporting these awards.
