An important announcement from our faculty:
Dear Friends,
It is with deep sadness that we share that the Expanded Animation (XA) program at USC will be discontinued, effective June 30, 2026.
In just four years, XA built an extraordinary record of accomplishment. Our students earned a Student Academy Award and received major support including a $350,000 SBIR/STTR Artistically Enhanced AI for Humanizing Robots grant, a $135,000 USC Research Collaborations Fund grant, a $25,000 Annenberg grant, and a $24,000 NVIDIA Academic Hardware Grant. We established ongoing summer residencies with Lowell Observatory and the Wrigley Institute, and our alumni films have received multiple international awards. Most importantly, we cultivated a bold, collaborative community dedicated to expanding the language and limits of animation.
Despite these achievements, the university has determined that the program is not financially viable. While we respectfully disagree with this conclusion, the decision is final.
The program’s non-tenured faculty appointments have concluded, adjunct and independent contractor agreements have ended, and staff positions have been eliminated. Tenured faculty have been offered reassignment or retirement options. Current students will be guided to complete their degrees through the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts and other divisions within the school.
This is an immensely difficult moment for the XA faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have poured their creativity, intellect, and care into building this program. We are profoundly proud of what we created together in such a short time.
Expanded Animation was always about experimentation, imagination, and courage. That spirit will continue in the work our students and alumni carry into the world.
With appreciation and solidarity,
XA Faculty ❤️
#expandedanimation
A huge congratulations to XA Alumni Xindi Zhang for winning the Student Academy Award Gold for her MFA thesis film, “The Song of Drifters” ✨
Xindi is the first XA student to receive this prestigious honor, and we couldn’t be more proud of her!
Watch her acceptance speech and full awards ceremony at bit.ly/xindizhang-studentoscars25
Press release: bit.ly/student-oscars-2025
@uscsca@xindizhangfilm #Documentary #Animation #AnimatedDocumentary #StudentAcademyAwards
Thank you @cartoonbrew for highlighting our #ExpandedAnimation program at @usccinema ! We are thrilled to be a dynamic program that invites creative artists of all backgrounds to explore the vast and creative potential of #animation across multiple platforms, mediums, and practices.
The #FutureOfAnimation is here, and we are ready to help shape the artists who’ll define it.
Learn and read more at https://bit.ly/ctxa-cartoonbrew #CartoonBrew #AnimationPrograms #Interdisciplinary
HAPPENING TOMORROW!
Join us for Endless Frames: XA Showcase 2026, a screening and celebration of awe-inspiring projects created by students in the USC Expanded Animation Research + Practice (XA) MFA Thesis class!
In addition to these visionary thesis projects, the showcase also includes a collaborative film made in the XA Documentary Animation Production class.
Works created in the XA program span a broad spectrum of genres and techniques, including character and experimental animation, traditional and non-linear narrative, documentary, stop motion, motion capture, VR, 2D, 3D, AI, and handmade animation.
After the screening, please join us for a reception directly outside the theater in Queen’s Courtyard.
Get your free ticket at https://bit.ly/XAshowcase2026 , and we can’t wait to see you!
#ExpandedAnimation #StudentFilms #Animation
Congratulations to our XA MFAs graduating yesterday! We are so proud of you and can’t wait to see your graduation showcase tomorrow ❤️✨
#ExpandedAnimation #MFA
“Midnight Muses” is one of the most personal films I’ve ever created. This short film has culminated into a year-long endeavor that was cultivated by some of the most thoughtful and caring professors I’ve been lucky enough to take classes with.
From storyboards, writing, mixed media and animation techniques, and now into its near final form, I don’t think this film would have ever come into fruition if it wasn’t for the XA faculty believing in me as a creative and working so tirelessly to help me cultivate my own artistic sensibilities.
Thank you Einar @einarbaldvii , Kathy, Lisa @lisadashmanndotcom , Gregory @gregdrawsitall , Sheila @sofafilmsproductions , Debra @debraisaac , Joey @mojoscribble , and all of the XA faculty, students, and family for letting me put my energy into what I truly love. It’s because of you all that I’ve finally been able to find my own voice again, to let me build upon it, and to create a space to express it. I love you all so much, and I hope you’ll all enjoy the final film when I finally release it.
With love and gratitude,
Q
#ExpandedAnimation #VietnamWar #ExtinctionBurst #Animation #ShortFilms
Floraspira: Ash Official Trailer is OUT!
Please come to XA showcase to watch the film I've been working on for 2 years!
1pm, 17th May Norris Theater at USC
Directed by me(@ridersun.keepdraw )
Produced by me, @unaxu.art
Sound by @_joeylzy_
music by me
voice by @joyforcebarlin johans saldana @eliska_elley
made with @blender.official
Trailer for my film “My Beautiful Tiger”
A 3:30 min experimental narrative film made of ink, paper, women, and tigers.
As a young child paints a tiger into a woman,
he comes to understand more about himself and the intricate performance of femininity.
Super thanks to @ryangundersonmusic for the beautiful music and @gregdrawsitall for advising! Thank you @sofafilmsproductions for the light table 🥹
Thanks and rip @uscexpandedanimation
🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅
#FlashbackFriday to our CTXA 547 #Foley and #ADR session a few weeks ago!
Our XA MFA 1s are working hard to finish their Production 1 short films, and they’ll be showcasing their films on Tuesday, May 12th at 5pm in SCB 104.
Join us for the extinction burst of CTXA 547 as we screen 11 animated film from some of the best animators in their first year of XA.
#ExpandedAnimation #Production1 ExtinctionBurst
Thank you @barrons for highlighting our XA students and faculty trailblazing the intersection of #Animation and #AI!
Read the full article at https://bit.ly/XA-barrons
#ExpandedAnimation #FutureOfAnimation
Did you miss the last time @realsophiarobot was on campus?
Then check her out in the SCA Gallery today courtesy of CTXA 588: Animation for Virtual Characters, Robotics, and AI!
The exhibit is free and open until 6pm. Take a moment from study week and enjoy a peak into the future of #robotics and #animation 🤖✍️
Videos and Photos courtesy of @sophiethewolfe
#ExpandedAnimation #SophiaTheRobot
Congratulations to XA students Ziyun Xiao @tuntunbananaski and Jiaxi Wu @jiaxiart for their well-deserved recognitions at the SCA Impact Awards!
Ziyun is completing her second year in the Expanded Animation MFA program and received the SCA Impact Award. Her work combines animation, speculative design, robotics, environmental visualization, and socially engaged storytelling. In all of her work, she demonstrates a deep commitment to inclusion, rigorous research, and meaningful community impact. In her creative practice, she often thinks about broader goals such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and how art and media can respond to real social, cultural, technological, industrial, and environmental questions.
Jiaxi is finishing her third and final year in the Expanded Animation program and was nominated for the SCA Impact Award. Her thesis film "Lazy Eye" challenges stigma around disability and foregrounds the emotional realities of both the child and her mother. Jiaxi creatively engages with social issues not typically explored through animation in such a personal, documentary-driven form. Her use of multiple animation techniques and strong visual metaphors is extremely innovative in both form and approach.
While the Expanded Animation Research + Practice program has been shut down, its philosophy continues through its students, and our students embody the very best of XA: innovation, experimentation, and a deep commitment to ethical responsibility.
Congratulations Ziyun and Jiaxi! We are so proud of you ❤️
With love,
USC Expanded Animation Research + Practice
#ExpandedAnimation #Awards
