Awkward Pause Productions is an independent film company founded in 2025, with a simple mission; to tell stories that investigate the things we find hardest to say out loud. When a room goes quiet, it’s usually because we are entering tender, intimate, sometimes strange territory, and we believe that these sticky subjects are the truly human tales that deserve a life on screen and stage. We also believe wholeheartedly that humour and compassion thrive in the same frame, and strive to find the funny in the awkward.
Our films are made with, and for, anyone who has ever wondered is it just me? They should allow those making and watching them feel like they have found community and relief in seeing themselves represented with care, humour, and dignity.
The Company.
The Founder.
Natasha Cowley (Tash) trained at RADA as an actor, winning the Carleton Hobbs Radio Award in 2016, and has spent the decade since working across British stage and screen, including Shakespeare's Globe, the National Theatre, BBC Radio, Netflix, & Samson Films. She then spent five years living and working in New York, and has spent her career gambolling around inside other people's stories. This left her with am ever-growing list of the ones that nobody seemed to be telling; the ones that we perhaps shy away from for fear of judgement. After her first co-producing credit on Lady (Dir. Jordon Stevens, Prod. Lizzie Worsdell) in 2025, she founded Awkward Pause Productions to keep telling the stories that give people pause. Tash writes as well as produces, and is currently developing her first feature film script alongside the company's next projects.
You, Me & The Bag.
Short film · In Post-Production · 2026
Pete’s been “fine” since his stoma surgery, and tonight he’ll prove it - one small pint with his mate, one giant leap towards "normal". But the world he returns to isn’t built to be kind to someone who doesn’t look unwell. How does he practice compassion for himself and others, in a society that won’t recognise an illness that it can’t see?
Directed by Jordon Stevens · Written by Fraser Wall · An Awkward Pause & Orange Gecko Production.