XA Alumn Xindi Zhang Wins Gold at the 2025 Student Academy Awards
XA alumn Xindi Zhang took home the gold at the 2025 Student Academy Awards in the Alternative/Experimental category for her thesis film The Song of Drifters, a deeply personal work blending documentary interviews with innovative AI morphing techniques. Zhang graduated from USC's Expan
LAAF 2024 Celebrated the Old and New
The annual Los Angeles Animation Festival (LAAF), which XA Adjunct Professor John Andrews co-founded and co-directs with partner Miles Flanagan, featured many new student and professional films in programs over the weekend of December 6-8. In addition, Saturday night was a screening o
CTXA 470 Documentary film “Boy Cut” receives several awards!
Jury Award Winner for Animation Nation Shorts, Best Student Film Award, Highland Park Independent Film Festival Best Student Documentary, Los Angeles Animation Film Festival 2nd Place WINNER, MY HERO International Film Festival Official Selection, MAX3MIN Festival, Milan, Italy Offici
XA Artists in Residence 2024 – Lowell Astronomy Discovery Center Grand Opening. November, 2024
Daniel Chit mentored Dine’/Navajo artist Jara Nez, a first-time animator who depicted First Nations mythology through beautiful animations. Zeping Sun created the Universe Theater’s grand finale by sonifying scientific data and is developing a visualization of light traveling from
XA Professor Sheila M. Sofian’s new animated documentary “Disabled: A Love Story”
XA Professor Sheila M. Sofian’s new animated documentary “Disabled: A Love Story” has received numerous awards and is screening at international film festivals including: 2024 Director's Choice Award, Thomas Edison Film Festival 2024 Judge's Unique Creation Award, 13th Annual A
XA Professor Tellez’ Life Drawing Field Trip Sparks “Creative Evolution”
In October 2024, XA life drawing Professor Norland Tellez took the MFA 1s on a fascinating field trip to the Museum of Natural History to explore the timeless story of evolution through skeletal design. Guided by Bergon’s concept of creative evolution which traces the homology of st
Annual XA Fall Field Trip to Arizona!
In October 2024, as part of CTXA 579 Journeys in Expanded Animation, 22 students, faculty, our XA Fulbright Scholar, and alumnx from SCA, Physics & Astronomy and IMGD joined scientists and artists on location at the Grand Canyon, Montezuma’s Cave, the Meteor Crater and Lowell Observ
Silverlake Shorts/XA Screening, September 13th, 2024
XA partnered with Silverlake Shorts for a special screening of films at El Cid Sunset on Friday September 13th, 2024. Featuring works by XA students.
Australian Fulbright Scholar Explores Art and Science at USC
Hailing from Canberra, Australia, Dr. Anna Madeleine Raupach is a Fulbright Scholar and artist-in-residence in the USC XA program in the fall 2024 semester. She is a multidisciplinary artist and Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University School of Art & Design. Through mult
Sophia the Robot and Humans Mix it Up at SCA
On August 29, 2024, USC Expanded Animation and the USC RASC (Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center) welcomed a group of international attendees from the IEEE RO-MAN Conference @ieeeroman (a conference on topics relating to human-robot interaction.) XA MFA 2 Daniel Chit demonstrated
