Entertainment Today’s TV Show Host: Margie Rey, and Producer/Reporter: Doug Nolan will take you live to the ROCK THE SHORTS film festival on the Montalbán Theater’s beautiful Rooftop in Hollywood, with live interviews.
Rock the Shorts Film Festival, celebrating short films across animation, documentary, drama, comedy, thriller/horror and international categories was live on the Rooftop of The Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood on Labor Day, September 4, 2023! Filmmakers and their short films were celebrated from 5:30-11PM. Two-time Oscar-nominated Editor Dylan Tichenor and Content Acquisitions Executive ShortsTV International (the first and leading worldwide network dedicated to short films) Florentina Almonte were Jurors this year. Tichenor and Almonte cast their vote for Best of Fest that were announced at the close of the evening.
Now in its fourth year, the founders of Rock the Shorts, Roxanne Marciniak and Josef Csongei, are huge fans of short films: 
The festival showcases short films while recognizing that many actors, directors, and writers have launched careers from this medium. “We feel the creators of such entertainment deserve recognition and encouragement, said Co-Founder/Festival Director Roxanne Marciniak. All of the filmmakers should feel like Rock Stars at our film festival. They all deserve it. There is so much talent out there. This year we have films from Emmy-winning and nominated professionals. We will be screening “His, Ours, A” written and directed by Nate Hapke who has won four Emmys for Directing ABC’s “General Hospital.” We will also premiere “Shatter the Glass” directed by Patrick Hogan who has received eight Emmy nominations in Sound Editing for “Six Feet Under,” “Family Guy” and Netflix hits “Cobra Kai” and “Umbrella Academy.” We would also like to highlight “The Wrong Guy” directed by Meisha Lee who is a professional choreographer. When we saw David “Kid David” Shreibman dancing in the film, we had to look him up. We were impressed to see more of his incredible dance moves and 156K followers on instagram. As I said before, there is so much talent out there and if we can shine a light on it–we will.”
“And we will quite literally be shining light on this year’s talent on the Rooftop of the Montalbán Theatre. The historic theatre, and its outdoor space with a view, has the cool factor we wanted to kick off our fourth year,” said Co-Founder Josef Csongei.
Rock the Shorts 2023 Lineup: “Gorditx” Directed by Malik Ever “Bourn Kind” Directed by Rachel S. Myers “His, Ours, A” Directed by Nate Hapke “A Biker’s Dream” Directed by Ken Glaser “This and That” Directed by Katie Garibaldi “Unconditional Love” Directed by Wallis Lu “Shatter the Glass” Directed by Patrick Hogan “Astrid’s Trip” Directed by Julie Doyle “The Wrong Guy” Directed by Meisha Lee “Steel Will” Directed by Eugene Khazin “Imposter” Directed by Chris Esper “The Merger” Directed by Nick Anderson and Skyler Henry “My Partner Giraffe” Directed by Salaheddin Noori “Knock Knock” Directed by Andrew Korzenik “Death by King Cake” Directed by Janssen Swent and David Luck.
The Montalbán, Hollywood’s classic theatre reborn for a new era of screened entertainment and performing arts, is one of the few remaining mid-sized and fully equipped proscenium venues in Los Angeles. It features orchestra, mezzanine, loge, and balcony seating, and is known for its excellent sight-lines and acoustics. The Ricardo Montalbán Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, bought the building in 1999. Humanitarian and Emmy Award-winning actor Ricardo Montalbán’s vision was to create a presence in Hollywood that provided inspiration and employment for young Latinos, as well as other underrepresented people throughout the community.
