Catherine Goldschmidt was born in Berkeley, CA, and grew up in suburban New Jersey, the daughter of a mathematician and a therapist. Although she was raised without television, her parents were movie lovers and would take her to the cinema often. In high school, she worked at her local video store, and at Wesleyan University, she worked as a projectionist in the student-run cinema, projecting 35mm and 16mm film prints. It was at Wesleyan where she first caught the filmmaking bug, and after graduating with a BA in Film Studies, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career in cinematography.
While working as a 2nd AC, Goldschmidt was able to shoot short projects on the weekends and between jobs, compiling a portfolio of her own work. She applied and was accepted to the MFA Cinematography program at the American Film Institute Conservatory, which she attended from 2007-’09. Her professors at AFI included ASC members Stephen Lighthill, Amy Vincent, Robert Primes and Bill Dill.
Upon graduation, Goldschmidt was hand-picked by Alan Caso, ASC to be his mentee on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Internship Program. Catherine shadowed Caso on the set of the NBC series Trauma. Later that same year, she shot her first feature on Super 16, entitled Northeast, which was gaffed by her AFI classmate Todd Banhazl (another future ASC member) and distributed by Tribeca Films.
From 2010-’14, Goldschmidt lived and worked in Los Angeles, joining ICG Local 600, first as an operator before upgrading to director of photography. During this period, she started working in documentary, collaborating with director Morgan Neville on his Academy Award-winning documentary feature 20 Feet from Stardom. She also continued to shoot independent narrative features, as well as short-form work.
At the end of 2014, Goldschmidt moved to London with her British husband for personal reasons and started working in the U.K. Making such a large geographic move as a freelance cinematographer was not a seamless transition, and she continued coming back to work in the U.S. up until the pandemic hit in 2020. Some of her U.S. feature credits from this time include Amber Sealey’s No Light and No Land Anywhere (Special Jury Award at LA Film Festival), Todd Berger’s Cover Versions (Opening Night film at Palm Springs Film Festival), and Elissa Down’s The Honor List (Opening Night film at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival). She also continued her collaboration with Neville, shooting across Europe for the Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design (Season 1 and Season 2) and Ugly Delicious.
After shooting the VFX unit and operating C-camera on Spiderman: Far From Home for Matthew Lloyd, ASC, Goldschmidt transitioned into shooting episodic television by shooting the opening block of Season 12 of Doctor Who for BBC One. She shot Quibi’s first narrative show, Dummy, for which she pioneered a new approach to framing for two aspect ratios at once that was featured in both American Cinematographer and British Cinematographer magazines.
After shooting a block on the last season of A Discovery Witches for Sky/AMC and the opening block of the critically acclaimed, original mini-series Chloe for BBC One/Amazon, Goldschmidt’s work attracted the eye of Fabian Wagner, ASC, BSC, who reached out about shooting on the first season of HBO’s House of the Dragon with director Geeta Patel. Her camerawork on the episode “The Lord of the Tides” garnered her ASC and Emmy nominations for Best Cinematography.
Goldschmidt was named a 2022 American Cinematographer Rising Star of Cinematography for her work in episodic. In 2023, she became a full accredited member of the British Society of Cinematographers after being nominated by Wagner and Angus Hudson, BSC. She is also a full voting member of BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and TV, as well as the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the U.S.
In addition to her accomplishments as a cinematographer, Goldschmidt is a fervent champion of diversity and inclusion in the industry. In 2016, along with fellow cinematographer Vanessa Whyte, she co-founded illuminatrix, a collective of U.K.-based women cinematographers, which she continues to administer to this day. In collaboration with IMAGO, illuminatrix and Camerimage, Goldschmidt helped organize talks, workshops, screenings and social events highlighting the work of women and underrepresented cinematographers at the Camerimage Film Festival in 2016 and 2017, featuring participants including ASC members Rachel Morrison, Bradford Young and Natasha Braier.
From 2019-’21, Goldschmidt served as the Diversity and Inclusion Rep for the BECTU Camera Branch (the U.K. Film and TV union), where she organized various networking and educational events covering topics as wide ranging as bullying and harassment, unconscious bias training, and mentorship. She has been a Screenskills and BSC Mentor for up-and-coming DPs, and she has also participated in Fabian Wagner’s First Steps Cinematography program, taking on a new shadow cinematographer every two weeks on House of the Dragon Season 2 and every new episode on The Last of Us Season 2.
In addition to mentoring, Goldschmidt has been a guest speaker at the American Film Institute Conservatory and the National Film and Television School in the U.K., and a panelist at film festivals including Camerimage, Sundance and Ostravo Camera Oko in the Czech Republic. This year, she served on the Television Jury at Camerimage.
Goldschmidt’s latest work on the new Disney + original series Renegade Nell, as well as her work on Season 2 of House of the Dragon, including the finalé episode was released last year. She recently wrapped shooting on Season 2 of The Last of Us for HBO, working with directors Mark Mylod, Kate Herron and Nina Lopez-Corrado. She also just shot Simon Ryninks’ BFI-backed debut feature, Out There.
