A sixteen-year-old girl is caught kissing her mother's boyfriend. Frightened and ashamed, she runs away and drifts from stranger to stranger, seeking warmth, confusing sex for love.

Often compared to early Sofia Coppola, SOMERSAULT (2004) follows Heidi through that cold and tender stretch of her life with what critics called disarming intimacy.

Heidi is played by a young Abbie Cornish, and the shut-down local she falls for is a pre-Avatar Sam Worthington, both in the roles that put them on the map. Cate Shortland, the first-time director behind the camera, would go on to make Marvel's Black Widow.

The film swept the 2004 Australian Film Institute Awards, taking thirteen, a clean sweep no Australian film has matched before or since.

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Produced by Red Carpet Productions and the Australian Film Finance Corporation on a A$4 million budget, Somersault was written and developed by director Cate Shortland over seven years. The indie drama was distributed in Australia by Hopscotch Films, featured at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, and later received a 4K restoration for a 2026 North American re-release by Film Movement.