Shengwei Zhou
Assistant Professor, Animation
MFA, University of Southern California
MFA, Peking University
Email: shengweizhou@usf.edu
Office: FAH 232
Website:
Born in 1991, Shengwei Zhou is an award-winning independent film and animation director,
as well as a multimedia artist. Shengwei's research primarily focuses on exploring
the transformative and integrative relationships between organic materials and digital
media to reflect themes of dreams, memories, and trauma. He combines various media
forms in his work, including cinematic installations, ceramics and sculptures, stop-motion
animation, 3D animation, motion capture technology, AI, AR, VR, performance art, and
more.
Notable works by Shengwei include the feature animation SHe, the feature film Art Is Dead, the short film Let’s Fall In Love, and the multimedia animated series Perfect City, which is currently a work in progress. His work has been screened and exhibited
at over 25 Academy Award-qualifying film festivals, more than 15 Canadian Screen Award-qualifying
film festivals, over 5 BAFTA-qualifying film festivals, and more than 4 European Film
Award-qualifying film festivals, both nationally and internationally. These include
prestigious events such as the Hong Kong International Film Festival, PÖFF Shorts
Black Nights Film Festival, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, KortfilmFestivalen,
Florida Film Festival, Dallas International Film Festival, and the Rhode Island International
Film Festival.
The feature film SHe was nominated for Best Animated Film at the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival
and was reviewed by Variety Hollywood. Shengwei's animated installations and multimedia
animations have been exhibited at prominent venues such as the UCCA Contemporary Art
Museum and the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Art Video Gallery.