About Us

Marauder Pictures was founded by Maxine Gordon and Joseph Bushell after the success of ‘The Archive: Queer Nigerians’ winning London Film Festival. With Maxine having a strong passion for development and Joseph having a strong passion for production, their collaboration perfectly complemented each other.

It was then followed by another short in collaboration with BFI Network and Eleven Films called ‘Baby’ as their first official production under the company. It was then proceeded with Doll in association with Look Aside Films and Dirt Funded by Decentralized Pictures shooting in Ukraine.

Marauder currently has several feature film productions on it’s slate and is looking for potential financing partners.

Send an email on the contact page for more details.

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Phoebe Yemi Ara

Phoebe is a WFTV Kay Mellor Emerging Writer London Library Emerging Writer Pan Macmillan Writer on The Rise and HarperCollins Author Alumna of screenplays and fiction; her work has ben longlisted for the Hodderscape Mo Siewcharran prize for fantasy, the Penguin Write Now prize, as well as Sundance. She works within film/tv production and script development, having worked within the TV/ Film development teams at Sony Pictures Television International, as well as Sky Studios, Sky Cinema and the multi award winning Nexus Studios. In addition, she serves on advisory groups seeking to improve diversity within the film/tv industry. She founded Empire Cosmic, a hybrid film/tv and graphic novel development company.
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Meet the Marauders

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JOSEPH BUSHELL

Founder, Head of Production

Joseph previously produced content in the commercial sector with global clients; from Apple in the UK to USDA in the US. He also originally worked on a series of narrative shorts in the camera and lighting department before fully transitioning to producing in 2022. His last project, BFI-backed The Archive: Queer Nigerians won the short film award at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival, as well as the Best Documentary Short Film Award at the 2023 Norwich Film Festival. The project was selected for 7 Oscar qualifying festivals and was included in the BIFA Longlist for Best British Short Film.

Joseph’s debut feature film Dali was nominated for 4 awards at Raindance Film Festival 2025 including Best Feature and Best Debut Feature.

Simisola Akande

Simi’s storytelling journey spans continents, from Nigeria to England, shaping her into a multi-award-winning filmmaker known for amplifying black narratives. Her breakthrough short, Ojumo Ti Mo won the BFI’s Who We Are film competition in 2020, Best Documentary and Film of the Year awards at the Watersprite Film Festival. Her debut film Dudu, claimed Best Experimental Film at the BFI Future Film Festival. Her recent documentary, The Archive: Queer Nigerians, won Best Short at the BFI London Film Festival 2023, Best Documentary Film at Norwich Film Festival and was Longlisted at BIFA. She has just completed her short film baby.
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Maxine Gordon and Joseph Bushell standing in Platinum Stage 3 at Elstree Studios

MAXINE GORDON

Founder, Head of Development

Maxine is a BAFTA-Nominated Television Producer renowned for her observational documentaries in the UK and USA, compiled several prolific music documentary series for Channel 4 and the BBC (The Hip Hop Years, Pump Up The Volume, Story of Jamaican Music). 

Notably, her collaboration on BFI Doc Society funded short documentary, The Archive: Queer Nigerians garnered critical acclaim; winning Best Short Film at the BFI London Film Festival, was nominated for Best Short Documentary at Raindance and won Best Short Documentary at Norwich Film Festival, Best Experimental Film at Urbanworld and Longlisted for BIFA. 

Maxine spent time teaching film at the prestigious BRIT School (alumni Adele, Tom Holland), which has given her the unique access to up and coming filmmakers, writers, actors in the industry whose connection started in classrooms and has continued on sets.

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Mark Waugh

Chairman, Executive Producer

Mark is the former CCO of Publicis Groupe’s Global Content Service, and one of the world’s foremost content experts, with over 30 years experience helping global and local brands maximise their share of attention, engagement and loyalty through content.

Mark has recently branched out into the film industry by executive producing Marauder Picture’s short film Dirt in Ukraine, bringing in industry leaders to support the project.

Mark is now positioned at Marauder to help drive innovation in the financing, marketing and distribution sides of production. Mark will support the company in preparing the next generation of creatives for a new era of narrative storytelling.

The Collaborators

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Lisa Kochanova

Lisa is a Ukrainian film producer who works across various short form formats, such as narrative film, music videos and commercials. She has produced several award-winning short films that have been showcased in festivals worldwide, including BFI Future Film Festival, and BAFTA-qualifying Bolton IFF and Carmarthen Bay FF and BIFA-qualifying Sunrise IFF. She has also  worked on award-winning short called BLUEPRINT, and the latest commercial she produced won at NAHEMI and was a finalist at Young Arrows Awards. 
She also worked as a researcher on projects produced by Film.UA Group and supported editorial departments on documentary films distributed by Warner Bros. and HBO.

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Black and white photo of a woman with curly hair, wearing earrings and a necklace, looking directly at the camera.

TO BE REVEALED

@olli.slatter

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Mickey Angelov

Mickey is the Founder and CEO of Look Aside Films, a close production partner of Marauder Pictures. He is one of the top rising talents in the UK film Industry and recently had his directorial feature debut, Dali, nominated for four awards at raindance including; Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Debut Feature. Dali was produced along side by our co-founder, Joseph Bushell and Look Aside recently also collaborated with Marauder on Daniel Lipton's directorial debut, Doll. Mickey recently launched The Look Aisde Short Film Fund granting 13k for production of a short to up and coming filmmakers. Look Aside is part of Creative UK's Stage 1 Investment Readiness Programme and a member of PACT.


Kostiantyn Bidnenko 

Kostiantyn  is Ukrainian filmmaker who moved to the UK  during Russia's full scale invasion.  He is now a London-based producer working across narrative short films and documentaries. His recent short film Romchyk has gained international recognition, screening at BIFA- and Canadian Screen Awards-qualifying festivals. The film has won Best Young/Emerging Student Film at Sunderland Shorts and the Audience Award at Cambria FF, and has received several other accolades, including nominations for Best Story at Sunrise FF, Best Screenplay and Best Original Music at Fastnet FF. It was also a semi-finalist at the Cannes Indie Shorts Awards and nominated for the Audience Award at Independent Days International FF. His work has been featured by BBC World and presented at high-profile events, including a private screening for Pope Francis during the World Conference on the Protection of Children's Rights at the Vatican.


DANIEL LIPTON

Daniel Lipton is a dynamic director, writer, and actor with a sharp eye for absurdism and a taste for dark comedy. His blackly comic, socially satirical horror short Doll is currently entering its release phase, while he continues to develop new work across both screen and stage—projects designed to provoke, entertain, and hopefully… unnerve. Raised on a surreal blend of Thomas the Tank Engine and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Daniel brings a distinctive flair to his performances, mixing wit, charm, and an off-kilter sensibility. He can currently be seen acting as ‘Thad’ in all eight episodes of Season 1 of Angel Studios’ Testament.

CHANTELLE AMPOMAH

Chantelle is an awarded director of the Visionary Filmmakers Programme, with a BBC-funded short film NIA, which screened at both Oscar-qualifying and BIFA-qualifying festivals. NIA has recently secured distribution with streaming platform Minute Shorts. Chantelle is a selected participant for BFI Directors Lab, Channel 4 / We Are Parable: Momentum programme, and UK Film Development Set Access, designed to mentor and teach upcoming filmmaking talent. She is a television and film professional with a strong background in story/script development, and production.