Links: Captain Chris Evans, Fan Bingbing, and Queer-free Freddy

• THR A yummy Chris Evans cover story on Trump resistance, Captain America as the key figure that allowed the MCU to flourish, and his superhero-free future. He really wants to do a musical!
• Oh So Geeky fetishisizes the good captain with millions of gifs in this piece about his arc within the MCU and Avengers Infinity War in particular. So much Chris Evans this week!
• The Guardian For its Chinese release Bohemian Rhapsody has lost three full minutes (including all queer references, any mention of AIDS, and what sounds like the loss of one entire character - Mercury's boyfriend). The movie has made almost a billion worldwide. Maybe have some respect for Mercury's legacy, Warner Bros, and just not release it in China?

More after the jump including animation lawsuits, what's next for Alex Wolff, the end of Game of Thrones, and a must-read Fan Bingbing article...

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The winning films from SXSW and SLO Festivals

Austin's SXSW extravaganza (it's not just films there but music and comedy festivals simultaneously) and San Luis Obispo's 25th anniversary film festivals are both a wrap. And with festival wraps come jury and audience prizes! While each year's mainstream gold rush culminating in the Oscars sometimes get snarky reactions in terms of all the back-patting of already über successful people, festival prizes are different. They can be career-making or at least significantly augmenting moments for indie filmmakers, who don't have the benefit of millions in P&A budgets or A list careers to bolster public interest. Awards are often the way artists can begin to forge a creative career. So keep an eye out on these titles and people in case they work their way around to you.

SXSW WINNERS

Saint Frances

NARRATIVE, AUDIENCE AWARDS
• Main Slate: Saint Frances (Alex Thompson) This dramedy is about a young woman who takes a job as a nanny shortly after having an abortion.
• "Headliners": Longshot (Jonathan Levine) New comedy starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen
• "Spotlight": The Peanut Butter Falcon (Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz) <-- Abe reviewed this one for us. Shia Labeouf stars...

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"Kitbull"

*purrs*

This wonderful short is directed by Rosana Sullivan and it's traditional animation rather than the CG usual from Pixar. The drawing is so expressive -- how great are the cats eyes? -- and as someone who once adopted a ratty-looking nervous and unfriendly street kitten, this really struck a chord. My heart melted when it learned to make a friend. Perhaps other cat owners or pitbull fans will be similarly moved? 

There have been six new shorts from Pixar's new initiative. Here's what they say about this program:

The SparkShorts program is designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows. These films are unlike anything we’ve ever done at Pixar, providing an opportunity to unlock the potential of individual artists and their inventive filmmaking approaches on a smaller scale than our normal fare.”

Review: The Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts

by Eric Blume

It’s my fourth year covering the nominees for the Live Action Short Oscar, and this group of nominees is far and away the most grim, depressing, and unrelenting batch yet.  Four out of five of these films are about horrible things happening to young boys. You’d think the nominating committee would have cleaved to some other topics. After a while, provided you view them back-to-back, the horror of it all becomes nearly comical.  If you have a boy child under twelve years of age, you will definitely want to skip this category this year to avoid going to a very dark place. But all five directors are talented artists who know how to build suspense and tell a story with fluidity and grace. Ready? 

Madre (Mother)
This short won the Goya (Spanish Oscar) last year and the director and actress have since reteamed for a feature version, currently in post-production. Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen swings swiftly from an everyday conversation between a woman named Marta (Marta Nieto) and her mother to an urgent phone call from Marta’s son...

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Doc Corner: Ranking the Best Documentary Short Subject Nominees from Least to Most Depressing

by Glenn Dunks

After doing this ranking system two years ago, we took 2017 off because – in a rarity for the Best Documentary Short Subject category – most of the nominees were actually not entirely miserable! This year the branch has gone back to films that make us feel deeply sad about the world in which we live. That’s not a bad thing since, if any category should be able to confront the inequalities, the traumas, the tragedies, the inhumanities of this world, then documentary short films are it.

This year’s nominees cover themes both familiar and yet distressingly contemporary: the refugee crisis, race, the rise of fascism and Nazism in mainstream politics, third world inequalities and death.They’re certainly not the happiest lot of film you’ll ever see. They do, however, make for a solid roster of nominees...

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