Welcome to our 14th annual curated list of thought-provoking and powerful documentaries, feature films, and television series that depict and delve into the issue of violence against women (VAW) across various formats and genres.
Every year, we select films, documentaries, or TV series that depict and examine issues related to VAW which need more awareness, attention, and discussion. Our 2025 selection is a diverse one that tackles topics related to VAW from ranging from femicide and domestic violence to obstetric violence and toxic masculinity. Together, they reveal how persistent and pervasive these issues remain. Through genres as wide-ranging as drama, documentary, crime, thriller, and comedy, they illuminate the systemic, cultural, and personal dimensions of violence that women endure across the globe. Some revisit chilling true crime cases with fresh eyes, while others delve into lesser-known or emerging forms of violence, expanding our understanding of the threats women face in both public and private spheres.
We hope that these films, documentaries, and TV series not only make you think about gender-based violence in new ways but also inspire you to examine traditions and social mores and take action to stop VAW in your own community. Most of the films, documentaries, and TV series on this list are recent productions while others are older or even considered classics.
Introduction by Anushia Kandasivam with additional content by Regina Yau. Written and compiled by Anushia Kandasivam with additional research, curation, and content by Regina Yau.
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Film Selection #1: Adolescence (2025)
This British psychological drama received critical acclaim this year for its “unnervingly on-the-nose” portrayal of adolescent radicalisation, cyberbullying, and crime. In this limited series, 13-year-old schoolboy Jamie is arrested by the police for the killing of his female classmate Katie because she had rejected his advances and later cyberbullied him. Through interrogation and interviews, the police and a psychologist uncover Jamie’s views on women, which have been shaped and twisted by the manosphere. Throughout the investigation, the adults are both baffled and horrified by what they learn, especially Jamie’s father, who maintains his son’s innocence until he watches the shocking footage of the stabbing. The idea of the story came to actor Stephen Graham after a spate of violent crimes in the UK by boys. He and the screenwriter created this story to interrogate why boys commit such extreme acts of violence against girls. It is a hard-hitting and very real portrayal of the harmful influence of social media on adolescents and the terrible pressures faced by boys in Britain, and all over the world, today.
Adolescence is available to watch on Netflix.
Film Selection #2: As You Stood By (2025)
A dark psychological thriller, this Korean miniseries is about two friends, Hui Su and Eun Su, who band together to kill Hui Su’s violently abusive husband. The series does not hold back on depicting all kinds of domestic violence, from controlling behaviour and physical violence to mental abuse and threats against loved ones. The audience can easily relate to Eun Su’s guilt at learning that her best friend is being abused but understands that she has had other things on her mind – a demanding job, a need to prove herself, and a mother who herself continues to be a victim of domestic violence. Eun Su finally decides she has stood by silently too many times and must be the one to break the cycle of violence. The series also shows other silent bystanders and family who actively tell Hui Su to hide her secret, but also shows that help can come from the most unexpected sources and people. This is a triggering and difficult series to watch but one that should be recommended to anyone who still does not understand the severity of domestic violence and the damage that abusers can do not just to victims but also the people around them.
As You Stood By is available to watch on Netflix.
Film Selection #3: Breaking the Silence: The Maria Soledad Case (2024)
In 1990, 17-year-old schoolgirl Maria Soledad Morales was raped and murdered. This documentary looks at what would become Argentina’s first recognised case of femicide. The facts are well known: Maria’s boyfriend Luis Tula took her from a party she was attending and handed her over to a group of men, including Guillermo Luque, the son of a prominent Argentine politician. She was drugged and assaulted, and her body was found three days later on a roadside. This documentary charts the investigation and the subsequent trials of Tula and Luque, including the frenzied media coverage of the case. Their initial guilty verdicts were overturned and they were only sentenced in subsequent trials – Tula for nine years for being an accessory to rape and murder and Luque for murder. They were both released early.
Breaking the Silence: The Maria Soledad Case is available to watch on Netflix.
Film Selection #4: Darr: A Violent Love Story (1993)
This award-winning Hindi-language film is a Bollywood psychological thriller from the 90s that has become a classic for its brilliant acting and its straightforward portrayal of misogyny, violence against women, and psychosis. In Darr (the Hindi word for fear), Kiran is being relentlessly stalked by her college classmate Rahul. They have never really met but he has only seen her from a distance and is convinced that they belong together. Slowly, his anonymous harassing notes and calls turn into threats and when Kiran marries Sunil, Rahul spirals out of control and turns murderous. Modern viewers might be frustrated with Kiran’s damsel-in-distress role but the complex exploration of hero versus villain makes up for that shortfall as Rahul swears to be forever faithful to an increasingly paranoid Kiran while the arrogant Sunil orders her about and lets his eye wander. Like any good thriller, it ends in a violent and bloody confrontation, and the audience is left to wonder whether the outcome is the best one for Kiran.
Darr is available to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Film Selection #5: Doctor G (2022)
This Hindi-language medical comedy-drama follows the struggles of medical student Dr Uday Gupta – Dr G. When his ranking in the competitive post-graduate entrance exam does not qualify him for pursuing his dream of studying orthopaedics, he reluctantly opts for the next best choice and joins the gynaecology department. He starts off on the wrong note, is ticked off by the department head who tells him to lose his “male touch,” and bullied by his unimpressed classmates, who are all women. This otherwise light-hearted comedy peels away the main character’s layers to reveal his obliviousness to his own chauvinism, belief in the patriarchal system, and preconceptions of his female patients. The way he mishandles his adult male cousin’s obsession with a teenage schoolgirl further reveals his prejudice. The film deftly uses comedy to deal with topics related to VAW including misogyny, the patriarchy, and women’s access to medical care. Ultimately, the film ends on an optimistic note as viewers see Dr G realise his mistakes and to grow through a series of humorous and genuine revelations and aided by friends and family.
Dr G is available to watch on Netflix.
Film Selection #6: Femicide in Brazil — the silent war on women (2025)
Femicide is a serious issue in Brazil, with levels of gender-based violence rising and deaths mostly caused by domestic violence and influenced by changing social and economic factors. This short documentary tells three stories about femicide in Brazil. The first is Christiane Gomes, who was shot in the face by her partner. She recounts the incident and tells how she is struggling to make ends meet while raising her children alone. The second is Carolina Magalhaes, who was found dead outside her apartment building. The investigation is ongoing but her family is convinced that her then-partner killed her. The third story is from the perspective of police officer Neuseli Pereira and the police patrol that tries to protect women under threat, even going to schools to educate young people about the dangers of machismo in Brazilian culture, which is considered to be the main cause of femicide.
Femicide in Brazil is available to watch on YouTube.
Film Selection #7: God’s Creatures (2022)
In God’s Creatures, Aileen’s life and the peace of the small remote Irish fishing village where she lives are turned upside down after her prodigal son Brian is accused of rape by a local woman. Aileen immediately lies to the police to provide her son with an alibi and the case is thrown out of court for lack of evidence. After the victim is ostracised by society, Aileen feels guilt and, worse, Brian’s behaviour gives rise to a creeping suspicion that her son may after all be a dangerous psychopath. Though the film is a little self-indulgent in its drama and dourness, it is an interesting study of toxic family dynamics, patriarchy and misogyny in a closed community, victim-blaming, and nature vs nurture.
God’s Creatures is available to watch on Apple TV.
Film Selection #8: Graveyard (2022 – )
Graveyard is a Turkish police procedural currently in its second season. It follows the adventures of the crack Special Crimes Unit of the Istanbul PD working led by a smart and driven Commissioner Önem as they work on a cold femicide case. When the unit combs through clues and dig into the victim’s past, they uncover her fraught relationship with her fiancé, and an increasing number of links to men who use power and wealth to avoid accountability for their violence against women. Additionally, viewers follow Önem’s professional journey that is marked and hampered by the constant sexism that she faces in the police force as her ability as a leader is often questioned by the male establishment because of her gender. While Graveyard clearly portrays the fact that violence against women has become endemic in Turkish society, its commentary on socio-cultural issues that create and perpetuate femicide, so-called ‘honour’ killings, as well as sexism and misogyny in the workplace is also easily applicable to such issues that women and girls experience across the world.
Graveyard is available to watch on Netflix.
Film Selection #9: Julie Keeps Quiet (2024)
Julie Keeps Quiet is a tense Belgian psychological drama about abuse and sexual harassment in sports. As a star student at an elite tennis academy, Julie is focused on training for an important competition when she is stunned to learn that a classmate has taken her own life and their coach has come under investigation and been suspended. Julie and all of her team are encouraged to speak up, but she remains quiet. The whole film is eerily quiet, with coaches and academy staff skirting around the subject, students not knowing what to say and Julie herself maintaining her silence while adults delicately suggest that she might like to tell them something. As she wonders about what she’s being loyal to, the film explores reasons why Julie might want to stay silent and shows the dysfunction and repression in institutions that want to be seen to be doing the right thing but know that it could reveal their complicit negligence and lead to ruin.
Julie Keeps Quiet is available to watch on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.
Film Selection #10: Push Comes to Shove: Stories of Obstetric Violence (2022)
This documentary is about an under-reported and often unnoticed form of human rights violation and violence against women – obstetric violence, which is abuse and mistreatment during labour and birth and when seeking reproductive and sexual health services. This five-part documentary series produced by NGO Embrace reveals the various types of violence and its pervasiveness in South Africa, and how it stems from historically patriarchal and racist institutions that deny the agency and autonomy of women, compounded by a lack of accountability in the healthcare system. It also explores ways to prevent it, and structural solutions required to end the issue.
Push Comes to Shove is currently unavailable on streaming services.
Film Selection #11: Rong (2019)
Described as “revisionist fanfiction” of 1970s and 80s Indonesian horror and exploitation films by its director, Rong is a short film that blends mysticism with horror in a tale about a Rongeng dancer, part of Jakarta’s nightlife, walking home alone at night and being accosted by a man, only to turn on her would-be attacker. The story is a take on the traditional Southeast Asian trope of a female ghost or spirit, a victim of sexual assault and representing violence and repression, stalking and haunting humans. These female supernatural beings are usually depicted as an uncontrollable feminine power until they are defeated by the good guy or a religious man. But not so in Rong, which subverts the trope to allow the woman to taunt and intimidate her attacker and successfully strike her revenge.
Rong is currently unavailable on streaming services.
Film Selection #12: The Judge from Hell (2024)
The Judge from Hell is a dark fantasy K-Drama about Kang Bit-Na, a demon judge forced to serve as a human judge in the national court as punishment for defying one of her superiors in Hell. Her mission is to eliminate evil and unrepentant people and to consign them to Hell. As part of her mission, she takes revenge on behalf of hapless victims by punishing men who perpetrate domestic violence and sexual assault through giving them a taste of their own medicine . This series is an entertaining watch and several episodes deal with the moral and legal wrongness of violence against women, a topic that more and more K-dramas are now commenting on. We also recommend a trigger warning for scenes of graphic domestic violence and suicide.
The Judge From Hell is currently available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
Film Selection #13: Victim/Suspect (2023)
In this documentary, investigative journalist Rachel De Leon and the filmmakers examine how women reporting sexual assault to the authorities are accused and arrested for “false reporting,” thus turning them into the criminals. In the film, De Leon interviews women whom this has happened to and uncovers common patterns and experiences including the trauma and pressure victims face when reporting, the misogyny of police officers who believe rape myths in an entrenched patriarchal system, and the incompetence of authorities when dealing with serious crimes and traumatised victims.
Victim/Suspect is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Film Selection #14: Who She Is (2025)
This documentary is about four women who were caught in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic in the US and Canada. MMIW is a specific form of violence against women that stems from trafficking, assault, abuse and femicide, and is woefully under-reported and ignored by authorities. The film highlights the issue through the lives of the four victims, bringing them back to life through animation and first-person storytelling and emphasises that they are more than just statistics and data.
Who Is She is currently unavailable on streaming services.
Film Selection #15: Woman of the Hour (2023)
Woman of the Hour is a gruesome crime thriller based on the true incident where serial killer Rodney Alcala appeared on a 1978 episode of reality show The Dating Game. The story is told from a dual perspective and various timelines – Rodney’s as he identifies, charms, and murders his victims, and Sheryl’s, the woman who won a date with him on the reality show and her backstory as a struggling young actress tiredly fighting everyday microaggressions in the patriarchal system she is caught in. Part of the film depicts true events of Alcala’s violent crimes, but it is the fictional date that Rodney and Sheryl go on after the show that is truly frightening. Their date is an exercise in revealing the monster behind a violent man’s mask as it shows how Rodney’s charm slowly turns menacing. This scene also effectively shows the unfortunately familiar moment for every woman where Sheryl must play “nice” to get through a potentially violent situation. The film is a great jumping-off point for discussions about the patriarchy, sexism, and misogyny because it pulls no punches in its examination and dramatisation of the power dynamics between men and women in social situations and the pervasive threat of violence that women feel every day.
Woman of the Hour is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Film Selection #16: Women as the Spoils of War at the End of World War Two (2024)
This German documentary explores a largely unnoticed and forgotten chapter in World War II – the assault and abuse of women and girls by Allied soldiers during the war. The film tells the stories of victims, their children, and grandchildren and reveals how the trauma not only affected them throughout their lives but is also generational. Many of the victims remained silent at the time and for years after because of shame and fear, but the film makes clear the importance of confronting taboos and bringing violence and crime to light, especially on an issue that is still very much part of modern warfare.
Women as the Spoils of War at the End of World War Two is currently available to stream on YouTube.
The picture used is a Creative Commons image:
Top Picture : Photo by Obergonia D. Toretto from Pexels.