Central Coast filmmaker Conall Jones is back home in Carmel Valley after winning the Academy Award for best documentary short for “All the Empty Rooms.”Jones said attending the Oscars was a surreal experience and that he did not expect the film to win.“We really thought we weren’t going to win,” Jones said. “They read out all the titles before, and one of them got a huge applause. I love that film, ‘The Devil is Busy,’ that got the applause. In that moment, we resigned ourselves to losing. So when Jimmy Kimmel read our film’s name, it actually took us a second, and then I went into producing gear.”The 30-minute documentary focuses on the lives lost to school shootings by showing the bedrooms left behind.Jones said the film is not about politics, but about making sure people do not become desensitized to the human cost of school shootings.“We go back to the feeling we had when Columbine happened, Sandy Hook happened, or Uvalde happened,” Jones said. “All these mass shootings — there’s this shock, and this response that we can’t let this happen in our society. And then we become numb to it. So all we’re trying to do is — and we don’t even say ‘gun’ in the film — it’s not a policy piece. It’s just, let’s remember that these are human beings being killed and let’s do something about it.”At the end of the film, the names of children killed in school shootings since Columbine are shown. Included is 14-year-old Alisal High School student Ethan Emmanuel Rodriguez, who was shot and killed near campus in December 2025.This was not Jones’ first Oscar nomination. He and director Joshua Seftel were also nominated in 2023 for another documentary short, “Stranger at the Gate.”Jones said he is now working on a couple of sports documentaries.“All the Empty Rooms” is available to stream on Netflix.

CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. —

Central Coast filmmaker Conall Jones is back home in Carmel Valley after winning the Academy Award for best documentary short for “All the Empty Rooms.”

Jones said attending the Oscars was a surreal experience and that he did not expect the film to win.

“We really thought we weren’t going to win,” Jones said. “They read out all the titles before, and one of them got a huge applause. I love that film, ‘The Devil is Busy,’ that got the applause. In that moment, we resigned ourselves to losing. So when Jimmy Kimmel read our film’s name, it actually took us a second, and then I went into producing gear.”

The 30-minute documentary focuses on the lives lost to school shootings by showing the bedrooms left behind.

Jones said the film is not about politics, but about making sure people do not become desensitized to the human cost of school shootings.

“We go back to the feeling we had when Columbine happened, Sandy Hook happened, or Uvalde happened,” Jones said. “All these mass shootings — there’s this shock, and this response that we can’t let this happen in our society. And then we become numb to it. So all we’re trying to do is — and we don’t even say ‘gun’ in the film — it’s not a policy piece. It’s just, let’s remember that these are human beings being killed and let’s do something about it.”

At the end of the film, the names of children killed in school shootings since Columbine are shown.

Included is 14-year-old Alisal High School student Ethan Emmanuel Rodriguez, who was shot and killed near campus in December 2025.

This was not Jones’ first Oscar nomination. He and director Joshua Seftel were also nominated in 2023 for another documentary short, “Stranger at the Gate.”

Jones said he is now working on a couple of sports documentaries.

“All the Empty Rooms” is available to stream on Netflix.