Cate Shortland (born 10 August 1968) is an Australian director and screenwriter. She received international acclaim for her 2004 romantic drama film Somersault, her 2012 historical drama film Lore, and her 2017 psychological thriller film Berlin Syndrome. She is best known for directing the 2021 superhero film Black Widow. Shortland was born in Temora, New South Wales. She graduated from the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School, where she received the Southern Star Award for most promising student. Shortland has created several award-winning short films: Strap on Olympia (1995); Pentuphouse (1998); Flower Girl (2000); and Joy (2000). She spent three years directing episodes of the Network Ten television series, The Secret Life of Us. In 2004, Shortland released her debut feature-length film, Somersault (2004), which was entered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. She directed the Australian television film The Silence. Her second feature, Lore, had its Australian premiere at the 2012 Sydney Film Festival. It won at the Locarno International Film Festival in August 2012 the Prix du Public UBS. In November, the film won the Bronze Horse for best film at the Stockholm International Film Festival. The film was selected as the Australian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. In 2015, Shortland announced she was working on a third feature film, Berlin Syndrome. Based on the book of the same name by Melanie Joosten, the film starred Teresa Palmer as an Australian photojournalist who becomes imprisoned in the apartment of a man with whom she has a one-night stand. The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. In July 2018, Shortland was announced as the director of the 2021 Black Widow film for Marvel Studios. Shortland is a convert to Judaism. She married filmmaker Tony Krawitz in 2009, and they have two children. Description above from the Wikipedia article Cate Shortland, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read moreShow less
Biography from TMDB.
- August 10, 1968 (58)
- Temora, New South Wales, Australia
- Director and writer
- 9 on MovieCove · 17 credits in all
What are Cate Shortland's films like?
Across their 6 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Self and Survival.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 5
Light 0 · Serious 2 · Dark 3
Grounded 4 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 1
Gentle 0 · Charged 1 · Intense 4
Steady 2 · Shifting 3 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 4 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 0
A split, not a type: Slow burn 3 · Even-paced 1 · Relentless 1
Casual 1 · Engaged 2 · Full focus 2
Easy watch 0 · Affecting 2 · Heavy 3
Resolved 2 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet2
- Ambiguous4
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Cate Shortland's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 6 of their 9 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (3).
Subscription and free streaming for Cate Shortland's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
17 credits, 9 with a MovieCove page; 2 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
Midcredits score: 37th percentile of all shows
Black Widow(2021)
Midcredits score: 68th percentile of all films
Berlin Syndrome(2017)
Midcredits score: 51st percentile of all films
The Kettering Incident(2016)
Midcredits score: 33rd percentile of all shows
Deadline Gallipoli (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2015)
Lore(2012)
Midcredits score: 84th percentile of all films
The Slap(2011)
Midcredits score: 67th percentile of all shows
Netherland Dwarf (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2008)
The Silence(2006)
Midcredits score: 59th percentile of all films
Somersault(2004)
Midcredits score: 69th percentile of all films
Bad Cop, Bad Cop (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2002)
The Secret Life of Us(2001)
Midcredits score: 68th percentile of all shows
Joy (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2000)
Flowergirl (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1999)
In the Winter Dark (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1998)
Pentuphouse (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1998)
Strap on Olympia (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1995)
Career shape
A full career of 17 titles from 1995 to 2025.
Biggest box office
Black Widow (2021)
Highest rated
Lore (2012)
Most popular right now
Black Widow (2021)
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
Awards
3 major nominations and no wins, 2004–2017.
- Sundance award, nominated · World Cinema - Dramatic
- Cannes award, nominated ×2
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Cate Shortland's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 68th percentile, the median of all 5; across their 5 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 68th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up1
- 50th to 74th6
- 25th to 49th2
Shape of the crowd
5 of their 9 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Crowd Pleaser5
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed3
Reviewers score the atmosphere 80/100 and the pacing 38/100 in their films, across 5 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Is Cate Shortland's work okay for kids?
Across a limited sample of up to 4 MovieCove titles with content scores.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted.
Who does Cate Shortland work with?
People who share at least 2 of Cate Shortland's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Damian de Montemas shares the most, 2.
Actors
- Damian de MontemasShared titles: The Silence (2006), Somersault (2004)See all 2 shared titles with Damian de Montemas
Cinematographers and editors
- Robert HumphreysShared titles: The Silence (2006), Somersault (2004)See all 2 shared titles with Robert Humphreys
- Scott GrayShared titles: The Silence (2006), Somersault (2004)See all 2 shared titles with Scott Gray
Producers
- Anita SheehanShared titles: The Kettering Incident (2016), Lore (2012)See all 2 shared titles with Anita Sheehan
- Liz WattsShared titles: The Kettering Incident (2016), Lore (2012)See all 2 shared titles with Liz Watts
- Vincent SheehanShared titles: The Kettering Incident (2016), Lore (2012)See all 2 shared titles with Vincent Sheehan
- Anthony AndersonShared titles: The Silence (2006), Somersault (2004)See all 2 shared titles with Anthony Anderson