LOS ANGELES —
School shootings and the families left behind to pick up the pieces are the subjects of the Oscar-nominated live-action short, *All the Empty Rooms*. It’s a topic more relevant now than ever. According to the group Everytown for Gun Safety, last year there were at least 163 incidents of gunfire on school grounds that resulted in 54 deaths.
*RELATED: What to know, who’s presenting and how to watch the 2026 Oscars*
*All the Empty Rooms* follows CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman as he takes us inside the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. We spoke with Hartman and the film’s Oscar-nominated director, Joshua Seftel.
Pennacchio: “I think that a lot of these families who talk to you, it seems like they weren’t afraid not to go into those rooms.”
Seftel: “I think every family has a different relationship with the room. Some people keep the door closed and go in there once in a while. Some people go in two times a day. But I think all of them shared one thing — they want their kids to be remembered.”
Hartman added, “The sheer volume of school shootings really drove me to want to do this project because we’d all grown numb to them. I thought the way to maybe get people to not accept this anymore would be to stand in those bedrooms.”
Seftel shared a poignant moment from the announcement of their Oscar nomination: “We watched the announcement with the parents, and Brian Muehlberger, who is Gracie’s father in our film, said he started weeping and said, ‘Gracie’s dancing in heaven right now.’”
Gracie, 15, was one of two students killed in 2019 when another student opened fire at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. Three other students were injured.
Hartman described the importance of the project: “This is the most important story that I’ve ever done. But I feel like it has the greatest chance to change the world. I don’t necessarily think that’s going to happen, but it just has a better chance of changing the world than anything I’ve ever done before.”
**Watch the 2026 Oscars live on ABC and Hulu this Sunday.**
Live red carpet coverage starts at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT with *On The Red Carpet at the Oscars*. Catch all the action live on ABC, or stream on Hulu and OnTheRedCarpet.com.
The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, begins at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT. The ceremony will be followed by *The Bachelorette: Before the First Rose*.
https://abc7.com/post/oscars-2026-filmmaker-behind-oscar-nominated-short-empty-rooms-doesnt-want-become-numb-school-shootings/18704353/