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).

[3] It won at the Locarno International Film Festival in August 2012 the Prix du Public UBS.

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.

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.