A powerful new short film by Nice and Serious for the End Violence Against Women Coalition marks 20 years of progress – and exposes the everyday ways male violence limits women’s lives, both on and offline.
It starts like any other feel-good street interview. A young couple is stopped and asked a simple question: If you could have anything in the world, what would you want? But in seconds, the lighthearted tone fractures and the stark differences between their answers reveal a deeper, more disturbing truth.
That gut-punch moment is the centrepiece of a new film created by London studio Nice and Serious for the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), launched to mark the organisation’s 20th anniversary. Designed for TikTok and social platforms, the short film pulls back the curtain on how men’s violence quietly shapes women’s lives, shrinking their freedom, limiting their choices and forcing them to navigate the world in ways men rarely have to think about.
For EVAW, a leading womens rights organisation, the project is both a reflection on two decades of campaigning and a rallying cry for the future. It challenges the way violence against women and girls is often framed in public discourse – dominated by police failures, court cases and headline-grabbing incidents – and instead focuses on the hidden, everyday consequences that rarely make the news.
“Men’s violence shapes our lives in so many different ways, limiting our freedoms and perpetuating inequality by holding us back from following our dreams,” says Andrea Simon, Director of EVAW. “Women have the right to exist in the world without shrinking their lives for fear of male violence. We know that violence against women is not inevitable, and that a different world is possible.”
The creative concept grew out of something most of us do without thinking: endless scrolling. “Nothing interrupts my incessant scrolling faster than a candid street interview – there’s something inexplicably compelling about watching random people answer random questions,” says Hayley Dunlop, copywriter at Nice and Serious.
That led the team to reimagine the familiar TikTok vox pop as a Trojan horse for a deeper message. By setting up a seemingly ordinary question and contrasting the responses of a young woman and her “perfectly lovely boyfriend”, the film exposes how vastly different their realities are – and how deeply rooted fear shapes the way women move through the world.
“We are laying bare how their experiences of existing in this world are vastly different – crucially, in a way that resonates with men as much as women,” Hayley explains.
Director Serafima Serafimova says the film’s impact lies not just in its message, but in how it’s delivered. “What makes this film stand out is that it doesn’t stop at exposing the problem – it points towards change,” she says. “It’s a visceral call for a safer, freer future where women don’t have to silently measure every step they take.”
Rather than relying on shock tactics or graphic imagery, the creative approach is intentionally subtle yet emotionally charged. Serafima explains: “What excited me most about the idea was its potential to cut through the noise; not by being shocking or frightening, but by being emotionally honest and visually bold.
“The cast delivered captivating performances, with the visual effects taking us inside a young woman’s inner world in a way we’ve never seen before in this format.”
The film’s message lands even harder against the backdrop of stark statistics. Sixty-eight per cent of girls change their everyday behaviour to avoid sexual harassment. One in three teenage girls has received unsolicited sexual images, compared with one in twenty boys. And online, the problem is escalating, as 94% of TikTok users reported seeing misogynistic content last year, while non-consensual pornography makes up 96% of all deepfakes – 99.9% of which depict women.
It’s this blend of everyday reality and data-driven urgency that makes the film so compelling. It reminds viewers that violence isn’t only about extreme acts, but also about the countless ways women adapt, restrict, and self-police their behaviour to stay safe.
For EVAW, the film is part of a broader reflection on two decades of advocacy, from pushing for mandatory relationships and sex education in schools to holding the government accountable for failures to prosecute rape. It’s also a statement of intent for the years ahead.
“As we reflect on the many wins of the last 20 years – and the watershed moments of the last few years – we know that by coming together to tackle violence against women and girls, we can free future generations from it,” says Andrea.
The film ends not with despair, but with possibility. The ultimate message is that violence against women is not inevitable, and that cultural change starts with recognition – with seeing the invisible ways violence shapes lives and refusing to accept them as normal.
By taking one of the internet’s most familiar video formats and turning it into something deeply uncomfortable – and deeply necessary – Nice and Serious and EVAW hope to reach audiences who might otherwise scroll past. In doing so, they’ve created something rare that doesn’t just speak to women, but asks men to stop and listen too.
