Anti-Sexual ViolenceFilms

Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut, a psychological thriller starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum. Following cocktail waitress Frida who is invited to tech billionaire Slater King's private island vacation, only to discover the men on the island are plotting sinister activities. The film deeply explores crucial issues including power abuse, sexual violence, collective trauma, female solidarity, and elite corruption, showcasing women's awakening and resistance when facing systemic oppression.

The concluding chapter of Ti West's X trilogy, with Mia Goth returning as Maxine Minx. Set in 1985 Los Angeles, Maxine transitions from adult film star to pursuing mainstream Hollywood acting career while facing threats from a serial killer. The film deeply explores crucial issues including women's survival struggles in the entertainment industry, sex work destigmatization, Hollywood power structures, and how women fight for autonomy in male-dominated industries.

A romantic comedy-drama directed by Sean Baker, winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Mikey Madison stars as sex worker Ani who falls in love and impulsively marries Vanya, the son of a Russian oligarch, before facing fierce opposition from his family's forces. With its authentic, nuanced performances and sharp social critique, the film deeply explores crucial issues including sex worker rights, class differences, economic inequality, and women's survival struggles in capitalist society.

A black comedy drama directed by Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, starring Susan Chardy. Following young woman Shula who discovers her uncle Fred's body late at night, the film explores the revelation of buried family sexual assault secrets during funeral proceedings with her cousins. With its unique African perspective, the film examines the complex relationships between family trauma, cultural traditions, and women's voices, becoming an important representative work of contemporary African feminist cinema.

A surreal campus comedy directed by Emma Seligman about two queer high school students who start an after-school fight club to win over their dream cheerleader crushes. This film explores themes of queer identity, female friendship, gender power subversion, and adolescent sexual awakening through extremely exaggerated techniques, becoming a representative work of new-era queer feminism.

Zarrar Kahn uses supernatural horror to follow a Karachi mother and daughter after the death of their family patriarch, exposing how grief, property insecurity, and male surveillance make ordinary movement dangerous.

A drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley, adapted from Miriam Toews' novel of the same name. Set in a Bolivian Mennonite community, following a group of women who gather to discuss their future after discovering systematic sexual assault by men in their community. The film deeply explores important issues including religious patriarchy critique, collective trauma and healing, women's political awakening, and the power of silence versus voice.

A journalism drama directed by Maria Schrader, starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan. Adapted from the non-fiction book by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, following their investigation that exposed Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault scandal. The film deeply explores important issues including the #MeToo movement, gender politics in journalism, the power of women's testimony, and the courage needed to break silence.

When her fifteen-year-old daughter seeks an abortion in N’Djamena, Amina discovers that survival depends on a clandestine network of women whose solidarity exceeds law, stigma, and kinship.

Three girls grow up in a Mexican poppy-growing region where mothers disguise daughters from armed men, making girlhood, friendship, and protective care the center of narco-violence.

A medical professor’s pursuit of accountability after suspected sexual abuse becomes an abrasive study of institutional denial, maternal pressure, and the costs of being believed only when one performs the perfect victim.

A bold and provocative thriller that confronts rape culture through the story of Cassie, a woman seeking justice for her best friend's assault. This Academy Award-winning film challenges audiences to examine complicity, consent, and the systems that protect predators.

In the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court, Eliza Hittman's Never Rarely Sometimes Always is necessary viewing. A tiny independent film that topped critics' best-of lists, it's about a pair of friends who are forced to travel from their small Pennsylvania town to New York City in search of medical aid for an unwanted pregnancy.

Based on A'Ziah King's viral Twitter story, follows part-time stripper Zola who is convinced by her new friend to go on a road trip to Tampa to earn money dancing, only to get trapped in a sex work situation. This black comedy explores the complex realities of sex work, racial dynamics, female agency, and narrative truth in the social media age through Zola's perspective.

A crime comedy-drama directed by Lorene Scafaria, starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. Based on true events, following a group of strippers who band together to scam wealthy Wall Street clients after the 2008 financial crisis. The film deeply explores crucial issues including class revenge, female solidarity, economic inequality, sex worker rights, and the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on working-class women, presenting a complex story of how marginalized women seek survival and fight back in economic hardship.

Adapted from Angie Thomas's bestselling novel, follows 16-year-old African American girl Starr's journey from silence to voice after witnessing her friend Khalil being shot by police. This coming-of-age drama deeply explores police violence, systemic racism, Black women's voices and agency, and young women's awakening and growth in social justice movements.

Coralie Fargeat's breakthrough rape-revenge film redefines the feminist possibilities of this genre. Through extreme visual style and violent aesthetics, the film explores complex themes of female revenge, bodily autonomy, and fourth-wave feminist rage.

In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working at the motel reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she stays silent. The film offers a piercing look at the systemic failures and societal indifference surrounding sexual violence against young women in contemporary China.

Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot as the titular DC Comics superhero, who fights injustice with strength, courage, and her golden Lasso of Truth. A box-office smash that scored more than $100 million on opening weekend - a record for a female-helmed film - it definitely positions Wonder Woman as the antidote to toxic masculinity her original creator imagined her to be.

Following a rape survivor through one night of hospitals and police stations, Kaouther Ben Hania exposes how institutions convert the demand for care into an ordeal of proof, shame, and intimidation.

This HBO television movie stars Kerry Washington as Anita Hill, a law professor whose story of sexual harassment is worth revisiting through a post-#MeToo lens. This film dives into one of recent American history's watershed moments, chronicling the testimony given before the nation regarding the sexual harassment of women in the workplace.

A biographical drama adapted from Cheryl Strayed's memoir, starring Reese Witherspoon as a woman who hikes the Pacific Crest Trail alone. This 2014 film deeply explores themes of female self-redemption, identity reconstruction, and independent survival in a male-dominated world.

At the end of the American Civil War, three women living alone on a desolate Southern farm must fight to defend themselves against two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the Union Army. This revisionist feminist western reexamines the brutality of war from a female perspective, exploring complex themes of women's self-defense rights, racial relations, and survival instincts.

High school cheerleader Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon after being sacrificed by a male band seeking fame, then begins hunting the town's men. This initially misunderstood horror-comedy gained critical reappraisal during the MeToo era, recognized as a feminist horror film ahead of its time that explores toxic masculinity, complex female friendship, and gender violence under patriarchy.

Through an Indigenous Peruvian woman living with inherited fear, the film examines how wartime sexual violence survives in bodies, households, music, and unequal relations of service.

Four girls threatened with cutting seek sanctuary from Collé, turning one courtyard into a conflict over women’s authority, collective resistance, and the power to redefine tradition.

Never one to succumb to labels, pioneering filmmaker Jane Campion delivers a love story about a mute woman whose erotic affair has life-altering repercussions. And even though Campion would probably fight us on this, one can't help but spot and appreciate what seems to be a feminist vision.

Two ordinary women - housewife Thelma and diner waitress Louise - embark on a weekend trip that turns into a fugitive journey after killing in self-defense. During their cross-country road trip, they experience a transformation from fear to liberation, ultimately choosing freedom over surrender.

Whoopi Goldberg brings Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize - winning novel to life as Celie, a Southern Black woman who has suffered abuse for decades. A project brought to a hesitant Steven Spielberg by producer Quincy Jones, the film was the director's first with a female lead.

A classic workplace revenge comedy featuring three female employees who unite against their sexist boss, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. This groundbreaking film profoundly reveals gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and pay inequality issues in the 1980s workplace.

If you don't yet worship at the altar of Pam Grier, then good lord, what are you waiting for? An action legend who has been shattering glass ceilings for decades, the woman has made a film or television show nearly every single year since 1970. And one of her best is Foxy Brown, a crime classic that has a feminist streak piercing through all its revenge-glory chaos.