Biography
Cate Shortland was born in Temora, Australia on August 10, 1968. In 1991, she received her B.A. in fine arts and subsequently studied direction at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Following a string of award-winning shorts, including "Flowergirl" which won the Best Picture Award in Oberhausen, and several TV episodes, she completed her first feature film in 2004: The coming-of-age drama "Somersault" premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival and went on to win several awards, including the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay.
Eight years later, she presented her second feature film, the Australian-German co-production "Lore". Based on a novella by Rachel Seiffert, the film tells the story of a daughter of high-ranking Nazis, who travels through devastated Germany at the end of WWII to get to her grandmother. During her journey, she gradually realizes how her worldview was wrongly based on the lies of Nazi indoctrination. The film premiered at the Locarno IFF and was released in Germany in November 2012.